diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 13203-0.txt | 925 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13203-8.txt | 1314 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13203-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 27213 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13203.txt | 1314 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/13203.zip | bin | 0 -> 27134 bytes |
8 files changed, 3569 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13203-0.txt b/13203-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88105f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/13203-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,925 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13203 *** + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have been +retained in this etext.] + + + +ORIGINAL LETTERS + +AND + +BIOGRAPHIC EPITOMES + + +BY + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +PREMIUM HOLDER IN DESIGN, AND SILVER MEDALLIST +OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON, + +SHARPE PRIZEMAN OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF +BRITISH ARCHITECTS, LONDON, + +CERTIFICATED STUDENT OF THE SLADE SCHOOL OF +FINE ARTS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. + + + +LONDON: + +SPRAGUE & CO., LIMITED, 4 & 5 EAST HARDING STREET, E.C. + + + + +_PAINTING._ + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 20th_, 1901. + +AN IMPRESSION OF "ECCE HOMO." + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_. + + +Sir,--First impressions forced upon me by an inspection of the +picture, "Ecce Homo," by Mons. de Munkacsy, would be succinctly +expressed in few words. It is haply, although not highly, inspired. It +constitutes a work of laborious but of average ability, and descends +to a lower technical state of imaginative eclecticism and expression +than I had indeed expected to encounter in so lavishly-applauded a +work. Let it be granted in the first instance that the theme is an +onerous one; the problem afforded by the venture should have been +met in a manner skilful in art, commensurate with its righteous +obligations and its lofty demands by the artist. The one fine +attribute conspicuously lacking in the work is its illumination, +generally too yellow; the fine quality of light, naturally directing +the hearts with the intelligences of the beholder to the central fact +of the subject theme, "I am the Light of the World." The broad use and +disposition of whitish pigment; I mean whitish, snowy light flecked, +pimpled, dimpled with tints of orange and purple, like snow about to +thaw, here and there, honeycombed or stippled to mark the intensity of +its native regard for its own divine, suffering, martyred Lord, would +have attracted the attention and won the curiosity, the sympathy, of +many finer sensibilities. A dramatic and subtle sense of distance, +such a powerful agent of spiritual injection in the hands of real +artists is in this work absent; never skilfully employed either for +negative or positive reflections of emotion. Linear perspective there +is, and employed to much scenic advantage; but aerial perspective, +utilised towards expressing overlapping figures, there is not, save +in meagre degree. The canvas is too crowded, the sense of vision +and admiration is nowhere at all lulled by repose. We may point +to successful juxtaposition of individual figures, to masses of +harmonious tones, but not to masterly composition. The mind of the +artist is intent upon the bitterness of turmoil; it does not reach us +directly by imperishably revealing or extolling the divine nature of +"The Man," "Homo;" and is throughout the field of interest usually +recognised in overstrained partiality for attitude and outline. +Hence the title of the picture is almost sought for, expected in the +multitude on the left, which should have been isolated. "Ecce Homo," +briefly and emphatically, is not so suitable a title as I would +suggest, with the utmost regard for reverence, might be described, as +the interval between the two cries: "Away with Him," "Crucify Him," +such intensely dramatic particles of time finding expression and vent +throughout the work in coarse silhouetting. + +The crowding of the lawless throng against the front of the tribune, +on which the chief characters of the scene are portrayed, though not +in a material sense wrong, must be open to much æsthetic dispute; +must mar the success and the action of reflex thought, the spiritual +contest waging and recoiling between the Divine, meek victim and the +surging rabble. At all events, it is sad to trace no direct or secret +hint at new or transcendental methods conspicuous or even dimly +apparent in the painter's art. Little there is in the effort to draw +our finer instincts to spiritual truths. The utmost mechanical skill +of the diligent artist is discernible, labouring incessantly without +extraordinary or transcendental light to the appointed end, the goal +accomplished. It should be understood that as spiritual Art of its own +property and nature is beset, environed on all impinging sides with a +multifold range, a series of difficult corners around which the +sense cannot immediately travel, but would for the fructification or +sustentation's sake of its etherealism, a process of counter argument +may deduce this aphorism, that in works of art in which the eye +travels quickly round all the corners of thought, motive, and +expression, the priceless, highest crown of spirituality cannot be +awarded to it. The painter, honestly striving with his subject, and +on lines of intimate understanding, has none of his physical reasons +thrown into shade, either be it for the nobility of his art, or for +urgency's sake, or for the softer assuaging of sensitiveness in the +breasts of his academic audience, having no inclination to be stung +when in the precincts, the hands of Art; for to whom else is the +pictorial homily directed? The group of figures upon the raised +tribune is classically adjusted to its position of prominence. The +spare figure of Christ, "The Man of Sorrows," is well conceived; the +face is wan, haggard, the attitude tastefully depicted. A palpable and +perilous digression is made by the artist in ignoring the text of +Holy Writ, "Wearing the purple robe," electing to substitute for the +purpose of his science a scarlet "toga." But the "torso"! This is +essentially lacking in consummate understanding, skilful address. +In all that assists most to mature a native work of this immense +importance it is sound sense, equivalent to the gravest optimism, to +express this opinion, that the highest powers of science ought humbly, +intelligently to co-operate towards achieving a grand and triumphant +finale, perfect, harmonious in all its parts, and responsible to the +academic dictates of its sacred title. Such a figure Raphael, Leonardo +da Vinci, Titian, or Rubens would have painted and blessed our reasons +with, for a certainty: bountifully inspiring us at once and for +time with their divine interpretation of the great, the majestic +omnipotence. + +Any failure in Art cannot rouse us to this pitch; our sensitive, +appreciative spirits would assuredly flag unless some keynote of +resonant power were sounded. + +The figure of Pontius Pilate is realistically depicted; it has not the +aristocratic air of a Roman Governor, yet the face, not caring to +meet the gaze of the people, is a work exhibiting some power. It +sardonically, satirically suggests the thought, "I find in Him no +fault at all," possessing a semblance of three meanings. The people, +deputy officers, and supernumeraries assembled upon this elevation +are somewhat stiffly grouped, and the architectonic embellishments--no +unimportant feature--well conceived, as they form the framework of the +drama, and must be considered well painted. Let it be observed that +the basket capital of the arch is out of perspective; a like error is +to be observed in the roof of certain of the houses on the left; +the blue of the distance, although luminous and atmospheric, is too +opaque. The arches forming the left-hand middle distance are finely +depicted; correct as far as local traditional art will inform us, +and of considerable value in such a work as ballast, substance, in +steadying the erratic fancies or emotions of the painter. Criticism +must justly deal with the figures of the Jewish rabble. The attitudes +are telling, but over angular and rather vulgar. The populace, I +may remark, are too excited; such sustained, extravagant attitudes, +whether in a picture of large or small scale, but particularly in the +former, are upon canvas rarely satisfactory; they mock with littleness +at a Providence that made Art, and become puppets in the hands of +artists. The heads of not a few of the spectators are too large, +coarse, and expressionless. Here and there, in the distance for +instance, amongst the living panorama, there appears a figure hinting +at a better type of gesture, with a human heart, suggesting an +acquaintance with refinement, but the breadth of awe, the girdle +of salvatory redemption, even in coarse brutality is not even here +apparent. The work is a mute exposition of gesture. The higher, the +acute, the really more intense connection of poetry is absent. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 25th, 1901_ + +"ECCE HOMO." + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press._ + + +Sir,--A correspondent whose letter is to-day published, calling +attention to my remarks upon the celebrated picture "Ecce Homo," of +February 20th, cannot, I suppose have understood that the motive which +impelled me in my previous letter was that the enlightenment of the +public having the interest of art might follow; next to whom, as +derivees of fresher, newer light, the spectators of the painting +"Ecce Homo," impersonally and politely apostrophised as "his academic +audience," may now be mentioned. Neither fault nor question was found +with any of such for so being; your correspondent introduced this side +view, I believe, irrelevantly--but with the picture alone. + +The mission of art royal should, I hold, be understood to elevate, +to raise the public taste, to cultivate or correct a wrong line of +popular impression; that of pictures of the like of "Ecce Homo," being +to enlighten the current interest for whose delight moreover art, +from a social point of view, is justified in its mission, having a yet +higher motive, the kindling of rapture in the heart of the creative +artist. + +Pictures since earlier times have been vehicles as well as ventilators +of popular belief. It is for this cause, and in instances where it is +proven, painful to touch or shake the constitutive elements of other +people's faith; an acute sense of this compunction on the whole +restraining the weight of my recent remarks. But, conjecturally +speaking, in a world wherein all things are so public, it must be +conceded that strong light should at stated times fuse the impinging +points of understanding, that truth and common sense may scrutinise +their sound bearings; moreover, also, that academic science may +arraign itself with dignity. + +Your correspondent's remarks with reference to the colour of the +robe are, upon the whole, useful, purple and scarlet being synonymous +terms; preponderance of mention, rests though with the former. + +Pictures cannot be considered too much as books; such truth, Art, by +the concurrence of testimony, has manifested in its destiny from time +immemorial, confirming afresh benefits on man. Open discussion will +not only add to, magnify, or deduct from their lustre, but cause their +aims, in short, to redound to the public weal. Such being so, it is +rational to expect an expression of opinion thereupon. They are not, +universally, to be regarded as graven tablets, to be gazed at, nor to +be received as infallible oracles of law. They are--at the same time, +barometers, charts, and weather-glasses--chronicles towards the fine +ends of justice, peace and mercy. + +Your correspondent has stated that my remarks are ambiguous. They may +have been technical and recondite, but, as such, are excusable, and, +in their sphere, just. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + +_SOCIAL SCIENCE._ + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Aug. 1st_, 1901. + +LOCOMOTIVE STEAM WHISTLES. + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_. + + +Sir,--It is essential, and, according to my instincts of decorum, +necessary, to call the attention of those charged with authority in +such matters, and the public generally, to the growing misuse, in the +hands of engineers, of the locomotive steam whistle, the employment +thereof having especially in town districts, grown to be out of all +dimensions of private service, injurious to those whether officially +called, or who, pending the pleasure of mercantile circumstance, are +publicly obliged to pursue abstruse mental occupation, necessitating +labour and much concentration of though[t]. A reasonable use of this +means, or instrument, of signal and alarm, must be conceded to +those in whose hands resides its use, but at the same time a firm +directorship or jurisdiction ought to repress its extravagant or +wanton employment. + +To warn passengers of the starting and of the approach of trains +only a moderate application of the whistle is needed, whilst for the +diplomatic the discreet purpose of practical manoeuvre, namely, to +draw the attention of signalmen to the passing of points by trains, +extra power is requisite; but the gruesome display, I maintain, of +vocative sounds tuned to an intellectual point of mood is needless. + +Those daily engaged upon manual work only are not in a like manner +affected, though for all reasons of civil and common honour the +supercilious cry referred to should be deprecated. Rather tune and +sound the whistle to two simultaneous notes in sharp, brief accent +than that the chambers of the minds of the hearers of those sounds +should be so continuously, remorselessly entered. Anything lengthy +aggravates the auditory crisis. The stream of daily occupation with +the set purpose of sedentary exploit is competent to regulate itself +without an articulate "voice" from the railway companies. + +I am, Sir, faithfully yours, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_July 29th_, 1901. + + + + +_SCULPTURE_. + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Nov. 16th_, 1901. + +ALFRED STEVENS, SCULPTOR. + +ADDRESS BY MR. J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + + +Sir,--I send you with the thought that you may wish to publish them +the precise substance of my remarks verbally delivered at the meeting +of the Bristol Society of Architects, November 11th, on which occasion +a refreshing paper upon the works of Alfred Stevens was delivered, a +man of high artistic repute, whose fame in this district is but dimly +recognised, being of another parent soil. + +Yours faithfully, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_Nov. 12th_, 1901. + + +Mr. Slater spoke as follows:--The importance of the moment bids me +hasten with all seriousness to support the special retribution of +plausible justice, amounting to adulation, which has been lavished +on the labours of the distinguished English sculptor. Had it been +necessary I should have travelled a greater distance to have paid with +my testimony homage to the words of this evening's lecturer. It is not +saying more than the truth will allow me, or admitting more than my +own poignant feelings may to such expression give justification, +when I confirm with my lips the belief that I have for much time +dispassionately held that Alfred Stevens, with Turner, were the first +artists that England produced from the middle of the eighteenth to +that of the nineteenth centuries; and that, compared with the great +oracles of the past, he reasonably approaches Michael Angelo, who he +unquestionably touches and sometimes surpasses. To state my views, +having received elementary drawing instructions from a friend of +Stevens, I think that there is evidence, in carefully examining +the figures upon the Wellington Monument and the Dorchester House +chimney-piece a finer knowledge of line in Stevens's work. Michael +Angelo's Medici figures, and indeed, his other famous works, are not +so unequivocably good; the effigies superimposing the sarcophagi are, +for brief instance, "pillowy," though they may be more anatomic. The +suavity of nature's hypo-refined grace is not traceable in their easy +posture. The fact is, that they pose for something; generally their +own animal idiosyncrasy, if not respectable vanity. Stevens's figures, +on the contrary, always for their own decency, which throws into the +core, the heart of the monument such an expression of beauty, giving +rise to the word innate, quenching the sense of frivolity, which +unrestrained, disordered state of things oozes out somewhere, or is at +any rate felt "in the air" in Michael Angelo's works. Stevens's head +was wonderfully poised on his own "torso" to know and feel this with +such thrilling, vital, consistent certainty. You catch awhile his +lovely idea in the strong fragrant symmetry permeating his work. The +iron soul of the man implants his lines of strength far inside +the actual bounds of the visible crust, and the mind of the idea, +naturally expanding is caught at the salient "processes" in curves +and features, betokening nothing--that touches--but grace. I should +mention that there is one fact which describes minutely my veneration +for Stevens's work at its best, perhaps the fullest; whereby I mean +that inspection of his intellectual labour has always restored to me +the time so wisely occupied in regarding it, proving that there is +goodness, virtue, essence in it, past all fellowship with ephemeral +things. There is a true, not a laconic, logical, and prophetic +inference in it that is apropriately styled, "time"; the finest +embodiment of musical equipoise; felt to a "tick"; no faltering, +barbaric, or false quantities, but a sustained and equable, uniform +tone of chromatic measure, meted out as by a mind imbued by but +sacrificing the scale of colour to its own actual, achieved end. One +misses the heated passion of Watts's best pictures, which flow through +the ordered channel of recognisable expression and make one adore +them as poetry. But there, of a truth, invidious comparison ends, +and reticence shall ever guard the space that intervenes betwixt the +grounds sacred to the exposition of the embodiment of these master +lights. + + + + +_MUSIC._ + +_From the_ BATH CHRONICLE, _January 30th,_ 1902. + +MEDITATION ON BERTHOLD TOURS' EVENING SERVICE IN "D." + +_To the Editor of the Bath Chronicle._ + + +Sir,--Personally it occurs to me that in a public sense it may not +appear to be out of due place nor uninstructive to the readers of the +pages of the "Bath Chronicle," if they were allowed to pursue quietly +the "meditation" which I have thought fit, with, some amount of +feasible excuse, to set in fair order, concerning the apotheosis of +an evening service in musical form, from the versatile pen of Mr. +Berthold Tours, in the key of D, which, with no inconsiderable _éclat_ +was in the sequence of events, produced at St. Raphael's Church, +Bristol, on Sunday, the 12th inst. A companion to the graceful evening +service or setting of the appointed Canticles in F major, which be +it observed, is the most popular, and from a purely suitable point of +view, most successful of modern evening services, it marks a phase +of expression, at once ethereal and predilectious. Produced at a +more mature period, and under certainly different circumstances, it +confirms, honours indeed, the fecundity of the age of its inception, +namely, the era of British Æstheticism. + +Commenting upon its attributes discursively, it was at the period of +its original initiation in London my privilege to be present; nor +must I omit to graphically allude to my belief, not choosing to be +otherwise than candid with my first impressions, that I had never +listened to anything which so rapturously illustrated the spirit of +those soul-elevating times; even to experiencing a passing pang, since +the perplexing principles or established secrets of decorative or +Æsthetic art, as understood by me, had so curiously been cajoled or +interwoven into the very sanctuary of Classic Music. Every phrase +appeared eloquently to illustrate and tell aloud the great burst +of passionate fervour, felt to be with serious activity glistening, +sparkling around, in painting and in decorative device. It was, as +it were the unition, the brazing together of these serious impinging +forces, and re-fusing them with fresher melody, newer vital ecstasy. +(Sir) Edward Burne Jones, Oscar Wilde and W.S. Gilbert had all not +dubiously striven nor for shallow effect. They had, though labouring +incessantly apart, built up a ghost which was in no fear of glimmering +or dissolution; and now Berthold Tours, spright of another element of +sentimental, I should say continental mythical music, upon the scene +springs with his amazing apparatus of staves and octaves, aiding the +_chef-de-musique_ and his trained voices to make sound within the +very presence chamber of Divine Worship this phantasmagoria of Teuton +intellectualism! + +Be it understood that this Classic exercise is not to be ceremoniously +regarded, nor classified, nor by me upheld as an example of Creative +Art, but as the brightest pledge of homage æsthetically offered to a +vital movement, essentially fundamental and wise; furthermore, must +be allowed to occupy a position subsidiary to the works of the artists +enumerated who evidently inspired it; unique and decidedly without an +exact parallel in the inspired annals of modern phonetic literature; +prefering at a more intimate examination to classify with it Professor +C. Villiers Stanford's setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate in +B flat--works, easily gracing the "Summus Mons" of co-spiritual +achievement; that impulse which selects, confirms, and then unites all +the fair fibres of Art. + +Berthold Tours personally possessed the evident characteristics of a +musician. No doubt could be entertained whatsoever, by any who once +saw him or his large meditative form, that music was his calling. The +duties inherent to the post of "music taster" to the house of Novello, +Ewer, & Co., he hopefully acquitted for many years, succeeding to +that office on the retirement of my once, in a choral sense, esteemed +conductor, Sir Joseph Barnby. The pianoforte accompaniment to many +of the classical works of continental composers he transcribed and +carefully arranged for his employers, whose confidence he completely +enjoyed, whether in addressing them on matters relative to prospective +treaties with contemporary composers, or in regard to works tendered +to them for publication, or on recommending them upon the pianoforte +arrangement of orchestral scores. Personally, I participated in the +satisfaction of frequently dining in his company. Amongst the +personal memories which I might in passing allude to, being my +entire deferential attitude towards him of reverence, ere ever being +acquainted with his patronymics, although already largely conversant +with, and a sincere admirer of his music. To have been spoken amiably +to by this distinguished "virtuoso" is a not unnoteworthy reminiscence +to be recorded. He evinced much concern in the early rehearsals of +his choral works; being individually present at the moment of their +preparation; but it not infrequently appeared to me ambiguous, that +unless accounted for by the responsibility of vast calls, he with +frequency turned his back upon the musical conservatories wherein +his choral works were performed; a custom due evidently to his innate +modesty, and perhaps to his susceptibilities as a foreigner. Berthold +Tours was a famous violinist of the first class, besides being a +recognised composer of music, and edited with Natalia Macfarren a +superb edition of the Italian, the German, and the French Operas. + +JOHN ATWOOD.SLATER, + +4, Hill Side, Cotham, Bristol. + + + + +_ARCHITECTURE._ + +_From the_ BRISTOL TIMES AND MIRROR, + +_April 18th_, 1902. + +BRISTOL SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS. + + +The Annual General Meeting of this society was held in the Fine +Arts Academy, Queen's Road, Clifton, on Monday, Mr. Frank W. Wills +(President) in the chair. After the confirmation of the minutes of the +last Annual General Meeting, the annual report of the council was then +read by the Hon. Secretary, and the audited accounts presented, and, +upon the motion of the PRESIDENT, were adopted. + +A highly interesting lecture devoted to architectural research was +delivered by Mr. J. ATWOOD SLATER, first silver medallist and premium +holder in design in the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Sharpe +Prizeman of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, +describing an architectural tour undertaken in 1880, and detailing +picturesquely the architecture and incidents of personal concern +dependent on travel met with in the departments of Seine Inférieure, +Seine and Oise, and Seine, penetrating into the heart of France as far +as Auxerre. The course of the Seine, with its diverse monuments, was +topographically followed from Harfleur to Paris, and subsequently +in its considerable ramification the stately River Yonne, Melun, +Fountainebleau, Sens, and finally the rich town of Auxerre coming +under consideration. The lecturer also drew special attention to the +advantage derived from travelling alone for the purpose of observing +better the archæological wealth, and the customs of the French, having +a distinct and definite line of study and object lesson ever in view; +to his wide sympathy with the French people, to their sumptuous care +for their ancient monuments, their courtesy and reverential manner of +hospitality towards English speaking students; and also in particular +to the unsuspicious, deferential manner in which they are entertained +and regarded by the Ministerial authorities: detailing in precise +biographical manner his experience with bourgeoisie and peasant, +ecclesiastic and soldier. He recorded also minutely the incidents and +popular events associated with travel, as study and the tide of time +goaded him onward, the wave of diurnal events lying upon the open page +of history, here dishevelled, here streaked with adverse episode, +and here becalmed. The hour being late, a hearty vote of thanks was +accorded the lecturer, and the hearing of the conclusion of a most +interesting tour was adjourned to another meeting. + + + + +_AQUATICS._ + +_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _August 2nd_, 1902. + +SWIM AROUND ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. + + +On Wednesday, a visitor to Marazion, Mr. J. ATWOOD.SLATER, from +Bristol, in a sea for tranquility suited for the saline venture, swam +completely round St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall. Accompanied by a local +boatman the swimmer rowed out from the mainland, quitting his boat, +and entering ten fathoms in depth of water at two o'clock. A mean +distance of a hundred yards from the coast was, whilst the circuit was +made, preserved. No inconvenience of any sort--excepting, towards +the conclusion,--the chilliness of the water, was encountered; the +distance of one mile and a half being accomplished in the space and +record time of three-quarters of an hour. The swimmer at the finish +expressed himself entirely satisfied with the nerve and capacity of +his boatman (Ivey) and accorded a tribute to the romantic style in +which the Mount and Castle proper are kept. The view from the watery +verge being replete with quaint interest and delightsome variety. The +previous occasion to this feat being performed was three summers ago, +when Lady Agnes Townshend, and six years since, when Colonel Townshend +swam the same distance; but no other authentic instance is credited, +or preserved on record. The swimmer on this latest occasion is a +Royal Academy exhibitor, and the designer of the subject panels in the +reredos in the neighbouring Cathedral of Truro; having moreover aided +the architect, now deceased, of the Cathedral of Cornwall in other +departments of Architectural service. + + + + +_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _September 4th,_ 1902. + +LONG DISTANCE SWIMS. + +IN A CORNER OF MOUNT'S BAY. + +(BY THE SWIMMER). + + +On Thursday, August 14th, Mr. J. Atwood Slater, then staying at +Marazion, who, as recorded in a recent issue, swam completely round +St. Michael's Mount, made an attempt to swim from St. Michael's Mount +to Newlyn. With his boatman (Ivey), he started from Marazion, entering +the water at S.W. corner of the Mount. + +Whilst engaged in the preliminaries of the start a moment of suspense +was passed, the distance appearing sufficient (when out of water) to +unnerve all but the most intrepid of swimmers. Striking out in the +direction of Newlyn, and using the breast stroke, the shore and +beetling Mount were gradually left behind, but when a full distance of +a mile and a half was covered, a swell got up from the S.W. and blew +a quantity of water into the face of the swimmer. At each impulse +progress becoming extremely difficult; nevertheless a yet further +interval of half a mile was placed to the swimmer's credit; when, +deeming it impracticable to continue further, and having covered +relatively more than half the distance, in a mood of chagrin, he +re-entered his boat. + +Then seizing the oars, and murmuring an ejaculatory note to the ocean +which had sent him not a few malign caresses, he pulled, boatman, +craft and all to Marazion; the time exactly occupied in the exploit, +of two miles and an eighth, being forty-five minutes. + +On Saturday, August 23rd, Mr. Slater again, taking with him E. John, +swam in deep water, from close to the pier head St. Michael's Mount +to a point contiguous to Longrock; a distance of a mile and an eighth. +Progress was without hap or hindrance, though in a grey misty light. +At length, whilst the disappearing sun sank to rest behind a belt of +clouds, parted asunder over Penzance, the boatman was called upon to +draw in his boat, the swimmer thereupon going on board. + +Experience gained upon these occasions teaches that it emphatically +requires greater nerve to swim in the open sea, always going straight +in deep water, than is called for when propelling oneself round the +Mount. + +Again, on Tuesday, at ten minutes to two, the swimmer, to confirm his +past exploits and as a climax to his stay in Mount's Bay, swam from +Venton cove to St. Michael's Mount, rather in excess of a mile, +in thirty-one minutes, Ivey, his boatman merely steering his boat +alongside. + +It is the swimmer's opinion, that the timing of mid, or half stroke, +is the most elegant, most difficult, and to conceal, yet fully make +use of this "break," constitutes the criterion as to whether the +swimmer, be he amateur or professional, is first-class or not. + + + + +_From the_ EXMOUTH JOURNAL, _Sept. 6th_, 1902 + +A NOTEWORTHY SWIM. + + +A long swim from Exmouth to half-a-mile beyond the pier of Starcross, +was on Thursday evening undertaken and accomplished by Mr. J. +ATWOOD.SLATER, an Exmouth visitor. Starting from opposite the pier +head, the swimmer, piloted by Mr. H. Tupman, in the _Ernest_, swam +round the Bight on the west side of the Warren, passing the ships +anchored therein, and hugging the west shore of the Exe, paused +finally under the lodge at the further end of Starcross at 5.45 p.m., +having, in logic swum the distance of two-and-a-quarter miles in +twenty-three minutes. The aid the swimmer derived from choosing the +flood tide he admitted was considerable, and served him for nearly +half the distance; when out of the influence of this, the water +suddenly became very choppy, the waves being too small for the swimmer +to time, yet with annoying frequency throwing their crests above the +surface of the water. Subsequently a great stillness was encountered, +until Starcross was neared and passed; the boat, swimmer and pilot +lying finally becalmed at the point aforesaid.--J.A.S. + + + + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Sept. 15th_, 1903. + +A SWIM ROUND MONT ST. MICHAEL, NORMANDY. + + +Sir,--On August 22nd, at 5 p.m., on August 28th, at 9 a.m., and on +August 29th, at 10 a.m., I achieved in a more successful measure than +had hitherto been accomplished the problem of swimming round Mont +St. Michael, Normandy, at high water. Previously acquainted with the +certainty that an adverse current would at one point or another be +met, I pre-arranged, and made three bold attempts, and by going in a +certain direction, met with the greatest success at the first essay. +The tides that rise and flow against the base of the mount are more +insidious and taxing to strike against than those which encircle the +Mount of St. Michael, in Cornwall; but then the quality of the sea +must be more pure and far more buoyant off the Cornish coast, and +freshens to a greater extent the elastic movements of the swimmer. The +sea, speaking from experience, does not harass one, swimming in the +bay of St. Michael, Normandy, until the "retirage" is met; when all +the force that can be exerted is necessarily called forth to prevent +being seaward swept. + +Yours faithfully, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +Albi, Tarn, France, + +_September 7th_, 1903. + + + + +_ARCHITECTURE._ + +_From the_ PATRIOTE ALBIGEOIS, _Sept. 29th,_ 1903. + + +Albigeois, vous qui passez fréquemment dans les rues adjacentes à +votre cathédrale, n'avez-vous pas remarqué la figure d'un artiste +récemment installé, avec son chevalet, auprès du gigantesque monument +et mettant toute la science technique de son art à le reproduire +exactement. + +C'est M. John ATWOOD.SLATER qui avait visité notre cité, il y a +quelques années, il avait alors dessiné une belle perspective de +Sainte-Cécile qu'il a exposée à l'Académie Royale de Londres. Il a +admiré la plupart des cathédrales gothiques de notre pays et, en fin +connaisseur, il nous informe que nous possédons un des plus recherchés +specimens d'architecture qui existent en France. Quelques-unes de ces +cathédrales sont à peine plus merveilleuses, mais il n'en est guère +qui se prêtent favorablement comme elle à l'esprit tranquille de +dévotion. + +Maintenant pour le profit de ceux a qui cela pourrait faire plaisir +M. John ATWOOD.SLATER, cet artist nous communique bénévolement ce +renseignegnement très spécial: Il est encore fort nageur! C'est +lui qui aux dates de 22, 28 et 29 août a été signalé par la Normandie +pour avoir fait à la nage le tour du Mont St. Michel: ce que personne +jusqu'ici n'avait osé prétendre faire à cause des marées qui sont +toujours très contraires.--J.A.S. + + + + +UNPUBLISHED LETTERS. + +_MUSIC._ + +_To the Editor of The Times, London._ + + +Sir,--Whilst admitting the all-importance and the austere role of +circumstance weighted with interest, and fused to an all-volatile +point sufficient to write to you concerning, and always entering, +freed from _schism_, the moot point, I beg leave to advance the +suggestion that (with correct apposition of sentiment, already said) +the moment has arrived for an improvement to be effected in the +Hymnal, in the public offices of St. Paul's Cathedral employed. + +For the furtherance of this important item of diocesan and divine +service, "Hymns, Ancient and Modern," be it well known, has stood +the crucial test of a number of years; while its mechanical +characteristics have been demonstrated all the way along the metronome +number of decades it has served to mollify and assuage the griefs +and passions, and inspire the consciences of congregations using it +habitually as a _vade mecum_. + +While believing in the sedate grandeur of its stereotyped orthodoxy, +I powerfully plead, and in a tone of restraint, this prerogative: that +the edition of hymns known as "The Hymnary," should upon examination +be found to contain more agreeable, versatile value and fecundity +of literary nutrition: honourably and scholastically capable of +out-classing the rival for whose displacement I plead; and competent +at once to put yet better light with wholesomer sustenance and rarer +spiritual food into the minds of its privileged students. + +The ideas and principles conceived by the once editors and publishers +of the volume whose richly bestraught merits I champion, and whose +solemn rights I plead, (in the year 1871), was to place in society +at once, all electrified, au prémier coup canonized (armed at +all points), a work which should at a moment be complete in law; +self-contained and academically referable to the stringent junctures +of an ecclesiastical, a national, and a polyphonetic tribunal: a +work which should loyally attract the acclaim of co-existing literary +hymnals, and ever would, it was reverently hoped--a sentiment which I, +for one, favourably concur in--remain, the key-symbol of the Reformed, +Anglican faith, with its near, true, and ever new ally--a note as +high, silvery and jurisprudential; purified domestic co-partnership! + +To further substantiate and enhance my devoutly expressed remarks, I +confidently state that the compilation of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" +was not originally in fact the outcome of an individual movement, or +yet of a moment. At periods diverse, and at stages various, it matured +its conditional purpose by repeated acts of regeneration and reform, +by keeping generally within the radius of a stereotyped policy of +pruning and paring; which consolidated by degrees and swept it on to +the confines and the platform of its national respectability. + +Be it even tacitly acknowledged, in surveying the genesis of Hymnology +that the function of revision has once been, a fact, applied to the +"Hymns Ancient and Modern" since the appearance of "The Hymnary," +in my estimation under a less searching eye than that which all +impartially discriminated and directed, at one and at one time only, +the laying together and the consolidating of the "particles predelix" +of this frankincense offering of the National Church; a work of +classic intent and æsthetic outcome. Personal labour designed it +_purposely_ for the hearts of men, but not for their _faces_; a +character which, Christian-like, it inseparably wears, like French +martial music. + +Herein exemplified to noble British hearts is a bulwark that at once +completely puts to rout no inconsiderable amount of the mildew mould +of "Hymns Ancient and Modern," while never so much as tarnishing or +jeopardizing the aroma of its native asceticism. + +Interested bibliophiles may peruse pleasantly the trenchant remarks +launched by the editors, (of the work upheld) literary and musical; +and examine for their predilection by turning its pages the analytical +merit of its composer's names; all serious-minded men; capable +lamp-bearers in the wide arcana of classic music. + +Stoical people do not know the wealth of chaste language stored up +within the covers of "The Hymnary." A rare musician-poet is needed +to resolve its pulpy flavour and discipline to the polemics of common +life; whilst one, a connoisseur, would readily congratulate the +sanguine, sensible, and all-seeing management, as regards to authors +of words, indices of composers, indices of metres, metronome marks, +which heralds and places it, in respect of completeness, ahead of all +contemporaneous editions. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER, + +_Medallist & Premium Holder of the Royal Academy of Arts, London._ + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_Epiphany, 1903._ + + + + +_LITERATURE._ + +_To the Editor of_ THE BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE. + +_March_, 1903. + + +Sir,--Touched by a virtuous sense that a noble writer has passed from +the central and celestial sphere of his vocation, and discharging the +offices of respect voluntarily admitted as a literary admirer, with +sympathy in a bruised state of liquefaction, I maintain that the +season for uttering a few words is clearly at hand, and should be +turned to the advantage of retrospect. + +Being bred of a generation which has read, with a spirit attuned +to the pleasant influences of an Academic and a Saracenic art, the +writings of John Henry Shorthouse, and ever discovering them to +contain philosophic importance and pyschologic expression decidedly +above the astuteness and ability of average writers; and having +usually in them remarked wisdom, council and knowledge reminiscent +of the inspired logicial writers and divines of the law-given +Testaments; in point of enquiry, I am summarily induced to champion +the belief that the psychologic, emphatic style adopted by the writer, +with the success in high quarters attendant the disposal of his +works, has not, convincingness being the indicator, been reached, nor +surpassed. The Warwickshire alchemist invariably throws across his +scenes and to the centre, a glare, a strong ray, which burns to the +water-line the barque of Agnosticism. This is tacitly recognised, +concurrently and alternately traced in the selection of the phrases, +and in the subtle or dramatic sense of the scene photographed; the +second inspiration springing into immediate co-operation, linking to +the first the thought by a magnetised hyphen, causes his symbolistic +pictures to thrive gloriously, rapturously; the first touch of +sensitized matter at times appearing grotesque, dimly lit, although +never flimsy. This pedantic, pictorial, even scholarly system by our +revered writer adopted, is bent, applied to meet extreme passes of +imaginative perfection and delicacy. The picture is naïvely introduced +and obscurely, somewhat trenchantly elaborated, allows itself to be +apologetically understood; whilst in succession the lower taste +for animal sentiment is sorcerized by vivid flashes of captivating +contrast, forked, as lightning, and left, as embers smouldering to +glow in the crucible of memory's recesses. Specious instances of irony +playing the manliest part: flashes of meteoric, mesmeric eloquence, +fitfully flecking the embossed page, as one tier or set of ideas, +in rhetoric orchestration, symphonizes with or eclipses another. +Connection, an element of robust mesmeric cohesion with this prized +author being the adamantine hyphen, the articulating link, which +compacts the roll. John Henry Shorthouse, the templar, the confessor +of music, was, and concurrently, the apologist of philosophic light. +Engaged to a powerful mechanism of romantic dogma, the nett article of +its creed; the neochromatic acoustic regalia of stage eloquence, +the key, or longest recurrent note; the van or middle the next, the +sinuous lever of stage discipline. After all, concurrently may it +not, be said that this colour instinct aspect of cosmically conceived +romanticism is never wilfully vulgarized. For its incomparable, +iconographical purpose it exists, and is as intrinsically useful and +serviceable to the scheme as the figures which admirably illustrate +the pictures of Hogarth and Holman Hunt. When introduced, music is +rarely intended to edge itself into the important place of "first +study." This in alchemy or personification being occupied by the +circumstantial cruxes of life, philosophic morality, vested usually +in courtly attire; I would not say abstract attire, for the clean-cut +character it bears is too strictly defined (for the sake of that +Artist's art) for such an impression to be born, or even to lurk by +sentiment, there beneath. + +The mould employed at all times is minutely fashioned, as a sculptor +would, by investing his model with a code of spirituality, inspired +with fire, which epicureanly endows fleeting emotion with a voice, and +vitality lends also to distant-reaching invisible ends: hinting that +the picturesque alchemy of music is potential too in reaching and +touching the lower chords of animal passion, where movement is rapid +and light redundant. The breast of the thoughtful writer heaved ever +to animal instincts without measure in extolling the complex phases +of court, ecclesiastic, and domestic oligarchy. Statesmanship and +subjunction rise and peacefully sink together, and in his magnetic +touch, are made to harmoniously coalesce in the political balance. +Shorthouse the author, a believer in, a champion was of two-fold or +dual cosmos: his colour sense being susceptible to and wrought upon in +singular consular consistence with the effulgent dogmas of its +creed, and in alliance with the spirit of the _cinque cento_ Italian +Renaissance Schools of Painting and Architecture. Practically +speaking, he conceived a train of adept ideas, at times fanciful, and +at times morbid, transforming them adroitly by adept excursions of +cross-lit introspection, accentuation, and by dint of manual caress, +as the first of players upon stringed instruments. + +Music, I would apologetically infer, being the middle, the rallying +feature, of Mr. J.H. Shorthouse's verbose apology. If fictionizing in +prose, he writes with brief orange-hued flashes of liquid ether; each +of short, all but, brief span. Characteristically, he belongs to the +same school and unapproachable law as the French organist-composer, +C.M. Widor: stringent, petulant observance of free uncurbed metronome +time, allied to picturesque handling; punctuality of tidal consort +rigidly regarding, when each, the one to the other, linked; less a +care, by virtuous intuition displaying for lyric measure. The writings +of Nathaniel Hawthorne more forcibly and piquantly evince cylindrical +flow, and strike at the object lesson with less artificial, _cadavre_, +fastidious touch; but Mr. Shorthouse, speaking strictly, as to temper +and _tempo_ is a trifle more rugged; and never a shadow of suspense +suffered he to stir a hand's breadth, that is, rest 'twixt poetic +certainty and doubt, lest the ultimate end should all-attainable be +or not. For freedom from this, and other literary ambiguity, yet never +manifesting anxiety of freeing himself in prose from its insidious and +arbitrary restraint, I attribute his tragical, subtle, gentle power of +"connection," _liaison_; feeling for time; planetary time, be it lunar +time, sometimes unmistakably, solar time; disallowing, by potency of +sentimental touch, a sense of rupture, to linger. A noble stream by +mute comparison, pursuing its course unwavering; interrupted but now +and again, to the vast expansive ocean of shapeliness, of unity. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER, + +_Premium Holder & Medallist +of the Royal Academy of Arts, +London._ + +Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Letters and Biographic +Epitomes, by J. Atwood.Slater + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13203 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..219c7dc --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13203 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13203) diff --git a/old/13203-8.txt b/old/13203-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e0ec0c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13203-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1314 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes +by J. Atwood.Slater + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes + +Author: J. Atwood.Slater + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13203] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGINAL LETTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Melissa Er-Raqabi and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have been +retained in this etext.] + + + +ORIGINAL LETTERS + +AND + +BIOGRAPHIC EPITOMES + + +BY + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +PREMIUM HOLDER IN DESIGN, AND SILVER MEDALLIST +OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON, + +SHARPE PRIZEMAN OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF +BRITISH ARCHITECTS, LONDON, + +CERTIFICATED STUDENT OF THE SLADE SCHOOL OF +FINE ARTS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. + + + +LONDON: + +SPRAGUE & CO., LIMITED, 4 & 5 EAST HARDING STREET, E.C. + + + + +_PAINTING._ + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 20th_, 1901. + +AN IMPRESSION OF "ECCE HOMO." + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_. + + +Sir,--First impressions forced upon me by an inspection of the +picture, "Ecce Homo," by Mons. de Munkacsy, would be succinctly +expressed in few words. It is haply, although not highly, inspired. It +constitutes a work of laborious but of average ability, and descends +to a lower technical state of imaginative eclecticism and expression +than I had indeed expected to encounter in so lavishly-applauded a +work. Let it be granted in the first instance that the theme is an +onerous one; the problem afforded by the venture should have been +met in a manner skilful in art, commensurate with its righteous +obligations and its lofty demands by the artist. The one fine +attribute conspicuously lacking in the work is its illumination, +generally too yellow; the fine quality of light, naturally directing +the hearts with the intelligences of the beholder to the central fact +of the subject theme, "I am the Light of the World." The broad use and +disposition of whitish pigment; I mean whitish, snowy light flecked, +pimpled, dimpled with tints of orange and purple, like snow about to +thaw, here and there, honeycombed or stippled to mark the intensity of +its native regard for its own divine, suffering, martyred Lord, would +have attracted the attention and won the curiosity, the sympathy, of +many finer sensibilities. A dramatic and subtle sense of distance, +such a powerful agent of spiritual injection in the hands of real +artists is in this work absent; never skilfully employed either for +negative or positive reflections of emotion. Linear perspective there +is, and employed to much scenic advantage; but aerial perspective, +utilised towards expressing overlapping figures, there is not, save +in meagre degree. The canvas is too crowded, the sense of vision +and admiration is nowhere at all lulled by repose. We may point +to successful juxtaposition of individual figures, to masses of +harmonious tones, but not to masterly composition. The mind of the +artist is intent upon the bitterness of turmoil; it does not reach us +directly by imperishably revealing or extolling the divine nature of +"The Man," "Homo;" and is throughout the field of interest usually +recognised in overstrained partiality for attitude and outline. +Hence the title of the picture is almost sought for, expected in the +multitude on the left, which should have been isolated. "Ecce Homo," +briefly and emphatically, is not so suitable a title as I would +suggest, with the utmost regard for reverence, might be described, as +the interval between the two cries: "Away with Him," "Crucify Him," +such intensely dramatic particles of time finding expression and vent +throughout the work in coarse silhouetting. + +The crowding of the lawless throng against the front of the tribune, +on which the chief characters of the scene are portrayed, though not +in a material sense wrong, must be open to much æsthetic dispute; +must mar the success and the action of reflex thought, the spiritual +contest waging and recoiling between the Divine, meek victim and the +surging rabble. At all events, it is sad to trace no direct or secret +hint at new or transcendental methods conspicuous or even dimly +apparent in the painter's art. Little there is in the effort to draw +our finer instincts to spiritual truths. The utmost mechanical skill +of the diligent artist is discernible, labouring incessantly without +extraordinary or transcendental light to the appointed end, the goal +accomplished. It should be understood that as spiritual Art of its own +property and nature is beset, environed on all impinging sides with a +multifold range, a series of difficult corners around which the +sense cannot immediately travel, but would for the fructification or +sustentation's sake of its etherealism, a process of counter argument +may deduce this aphorism, that in works of art in which the eye +travels quickly round all the corners of thought, motive, and +expression, the priceless, highest crown of spirituality cannot be +awarded to it. The painter, honestly striving with his subject, and +on lines of intimate understanding, has none of his physical reasons +thrown into shade, either be it for the nobility of his art, or for +urgency's sake, or for the softer assuaging of sensitiveness in the +breasts of his academic audience, having no inclination to be stung +when in the precincts, the hands of Art; for to whom else is the +pictorial homily directed? The group of figures upon the raised +tribune is classically adjusted to its position of prominence. The +spare figure of Christ, "The Man of Sorrows," is well conceived; the +face is wan, haggard, the attitude tastefully depicted. A palpable and +perilous digression is made by the artist in ignoring the text of +Holy Writ, "Wearing the purple robe," electing to substitute for the +purpose of his science a scarlet "toga." But the "torso"! This is +essentially lacking in consummate understanding, skilful address. +In all that assists most to mature a native work of this immense +importance it is sound sense, equivalent to the gravest optimism, to +express this opinion, that the highest powers of science ought humbly, +intelligently to co-operate towards achieving a grand and triumphant +finale, perfect, harmonious in all its parts, and responsible to the +academic dictates of its sacred title. Such a figure Raphael, Leonardo +da Vinci, Titian, or Rubens would have painted and blessed our reasons +with, for a certainty: bountifully inspiring us at once and for +time with their divine interpretation of the great, the majestic +omnipotence. + +Any failure in Art cannot rouse us to this pitch; our sensitive, +appreciative spirits would assuredly flag unless some keynote of +resonant power were sounded. + +The figure of Pontius Pilate is realistically depicted; it has not the +aristocratic air of a Roman Governor, yet the face, not caring to +meet the gaze of the people, is a work exhibiting some power. It +sardonically, satirically suggests the thought, "I find in Him no +fault at all," possessing a semblance of three meanings. The people, +deputy officers, and supernumeraries assembled upon this elevation +are somewhat stiffly grouped, and the architectonic embellishments--no +unimportant feature--well conceived, as they form the framework of the +drama, and must be considered well painted. Let it be observed that +the basket capital of the arch is out of perspective; a like error is +to be observed in the roof of certain of the houses on the left; +the blue of the distance, although luminous and atmospheric, is too +opaque. The arches forming the left-hand middle distance are finely +depicted; correct as far as local traditional art will inform us, +and of considerable value in such a work as ballast, substance, in +steadying the erratic fancies or emotions of the painter. Criticism +must justly deal with the figures of the Jewish rabble. The attitudes +are telling, but over angular and rather vulgar. The populace, I +may remark, are too excited; such sustained, extravagant attitudes, +whether in a picture of large or small scale, but particularly in the +former, are upon canvas rarely satisfactory; they mock with littleness +at a Providence that made Art, and become puppets in the hands of +artists. The heads of not a few of the spectators are too large, +coarse, and expressionless. Here and there, in the distance for +instance, amongst the living panorama, there appears a figure hinting +at a better type of gesture, with a human heart, suggesting an +acquaintance with refinement, but the breadth of awe, the girdle +of salvatory redemption, even in coarse brutality is not even here +apparent. The work is a mute exposition of gesture. The higher, the +acute, the really more intense connection of poetry is absent. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 25th, 1901_ + +"ECCE HOMO." + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press._ + + +Sir,--A correspondent whose letter is to-day published, calling +attention to my remarks upon the celebrated picture "Ecce Homo," of +February 20th, cannot, I suppose have understood that the motive which +impelled me in my previous letter was that the enlightenment of the +public having the interest of art might follow; next to whom, as +derivees of fresher, newer light, the spectators of the painting +"Ecce Homo," impersonally and politely apostrophised as "his academic +audience," may now be mentioned. Neither fault nor question was found +with any of such for so being; your correspondent introduced this side +view, I believe, irrelevantly--but with the picture alone. + +The mission of art royal should, I hold, be understood to elevate, +to raise the public taste, to cultivate or correct a wrong line of +popular impression; that of pictures of the like of "Ecce Homo," being +to enlighten the current interest for whose delight moreover art, +from a social point of view, is justified in its mission, having a yet +higher motive, the kindling of rapture in the heart of the creative +artist. + +Pictures since earlier times have been vehicles as well as ventilators +of popular belief. It is for this cause, and in instances where it is +proven, painful to touch or shake the constitutive elements of other +people's faith; an acute sense of this compunction on the whole +restraining the weight of my recent remarks. But, conjecturally +speaking, in a world wherein all things are so public, it must be +conceded that strong light should at stated times fuse the impinging +points of understanding, that truth and common sense may scrutinise +their sound bearings; moreover, also, that academic science may +arraign itself with dignity. + +Your correspondent's remarks with reference to the colour of the +robe are, upon the whole, useful, purple and scarlet being synonymous +terms; preponderance of mention, rests though with the former. + +Pictures cannot be considered too much as books; such truth, Art, by +the concurrence of testimony, has manifested in its destiny from time +immemorial, confirming afresh benefits on man. Open discussion will +not only add to, magnify, or deduct from their lustre, but cause their +aims, in short, to redound to the public weal. Such being so, it is +rational to expect an expression of opinion thereupon. They are not, +universally, to be regarded as graven tablets, to be gazed at, nor to +be received as infallible oracles of law. They are--at the same time, +barometers, charts, and weather-glasses--chronicles towards the fine +ends of justice, peace and mercy. + +Your correspondent has stated that my remarks are ambiguous. They may +have been technical and recondite, but, as such, are excusable, and, +in their sphere, just. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + +_SOCIAL SCIENCE._ + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Aug. 1st_, 1901. + +LOCOMOTIVE STEAM WHISTLES. + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_. + + +Sir,--It is essential, and, according to my instincts of decorum, +necessary, to call the attention of those charged with authority in +such matters, and the public generally, to the growing misuse, in the +hands of engineers, of the locomotive steam whistle, the employment +thereof having especially in town districts, grown to be out of all +dimensions of private service, injurious to those whether officially +called, or who, pending the pleasure of mercantile circumstance, are +publicly obliged to pursue abstruse mental occupation, necessitating +labour and much concentration of though[t]. A reasonable use of this +means, or instrument, of signal and alarm, must be conceded to +those in whose hands resides its use, but at the same time a firm +directorship or jurisdiction ought to repress its extravagant or +wanton employment. + +To warn passengers of the starting and of the approach of trains +only a moderate application of the whistle is needed, whilst for the +diplomatic the discreet purpose of practical manoeuvre, namely, to +draw the attention of signalmen to the passing of points by trains, +extra power is requisite; but the gruesome display, I maintain, of +vocative sounds tuned to an intellectual point of mood is needless. + +Those daily engaged upon manual work only are not in a like manner +affected, though for all reasons of civil and common honour the +supercilious cry referred to should be deprecated. Rather tune and +sound the whistle to two simultaneous notes in sharp, brief accent +than that the chambers of the minds of the hearers of those sounds +should be so continuously, remorselessly entered. Anything lengthy +aggravates the auditory crisis. The stream of daily occupation with +the set purpose of sedentary exploit is competent to regulate itself +without an articulate "voice" from the railway companies. + +I am, Sir, faithfully yours, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_July 29th_, 1901. + + + + +_SCULPTURE_. + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Nov. 16th_, 1901. + +ALFRED STEVENS, SCULPTOR. + +ADDRESS BY MR. J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + + +Sir,--I send you with the thought that you may wish to publish them +the precise substance of my remarks verbally delivered at the meeting +of the Bristol Society of Architects, November 11th, on which occasion +a refreshing paper upon the works of Alfred Stevens was delivered, a +man of high artistic repute, whose fame in this district is but dimly +recognised, being of another parent soil. + +Yours faithfully, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_Nov. 12th_, 1901. + + +Mr. Slater spoke as follows:--The importance of the moment bids me +hasten with all seriousness to support the special retribution of +plausible justice, amounting to adulation, which has been lavished +on the labours of the distinguished English sculptor. Had it been +necessary I should have travelled a greater distance to have paid with +my testimony homage to the words of this evening's lecturer. It is not +saying more than the truth will allow me, or admitting more than my +own poignant feelings may to such expression give justification, +when I confirm with my lips the belief that I have for much time +dispassionately held that Alfred Stevens, with Turner, were the first +artists that England produced from the middle of the eighteenth to +that of the nineteenth centuries; and that, compared with the great +oracles of the past, he reasonably approaches Michael Angelo, who he +unquestionably touches and sometimes surpasses. To state my views, +having received elementary drawing instructions from a friend of +Stevens, I think that there is evidence, in carefully examining +the figures upon the Wellington Monument and the Dorchester House +chimney-piece a finer knowledge of line in Stevens's work. Michael +Angelo's Medici figures, and indeed, his other famous works, are not +so unequivocably good; the effigies superimposing the sarcophagi are, +for brief instance, "pillowy," though they may be more anatomic. The +suavity of nature's hypo-refined grace is not traceable in their easy +posture. The fact is, that they pose for something; generally their +own animal idiosyncrasy, if not respectable vanity. Stevens's figures, +on the contrary, always for their own decency, which throws into the +core, the heart of the monument such an expression of beauty, giving +rise to the word innate, quenching the sense of frivolity, which +unrestrained, disordered state of things oozes out somewhere, or is at +any rate felt "in the air" in Michael Angelo's works. Stevens's head +was wonderfully poised on his own "torso" to know and feel this with +such thrilling, vital, consistent certainty. You catch awhile his +lovely idea in the strong fragrant symmetry permeating his work. The +iron soul of the man implants his lines of strength far inside +the actual bounds of the visible crust, and the mind of the idea, +naturally expanding is caught at the salient "processes" in curves +and features, betokening nothing--that touches--but grace. I should +mention that there is one fact which describes minutely my veneration +for Stevens's work at its best, perhaps the fullest; whereby I mean +that inspection of his intellectual labour has always restored to me +the time so wisely occupied in regarding it, proving that there is +goodness, virtue, essence in it, past all fellowship with ephemeral +things. There is a true, not a laconic, logical, and prophetic +inference in it that is apropriately styled, "time"; the finest +embodiment of musical equipoise; felt to a "tick"; no faltering, +barbaric, or false quantities, but a sustained and equable, uniform +tone of chromatic measure, meted out as by a mind imbued by but +sacrificing the scale of colour to its own actual, achieved end. One +misses the heated passion of Watts's best pictures, which flow through +the ordered channel of recognisable expression and make one adore +them as poetry. But there, of a truth, invidious comparison ends, +and reticence shall ever guard the space that intervenes betwixt the +grounds sacred to the exposition of the embodiment of these master +lights. + + + + +_MUSIC._ + +_From the_ BATH CHRONICLE, _January 30th,_ 1902. + +MEDITATION ON BERTHOLD TOURS' EVENING SERVICE IN "D." + +_To the Editor of the Bath Chronicle._ + + +Sir,--Personally it occurs to me that in a public sense it may not +appear to be out of due place nor uninstructive to the readers of the +pages of the "Bath Chronicle," if they were allowed to pursue quietly +the "meditation" which I have thought fit, with, some amount of +feasible excuse, to set in fair order, concerning the apotheosis of +an evening service in musical form, from the versatile pen of Mr. +Berthold Tours, in the key of D, which, with no inconsiderable _éclat_ +was in the sequence of events, produced at St. Raphael's Church, +Bristol, on Sunday, the 12th inst. A companion to the graceful evening +service or setting of the appointed Canticles in F major, which be +it observed, is the most popular, and from a purely suitable point of +view, most successful of modern evening services, it marks a phase +of expression, at once ethereal and predilectious. Produced at a +more mature period, and under certainly different circumstances, it +confirms, honours indeed, the fecundity of the age of its inception, +namely, the era of British Æstheticism. + +Commenting upon its attributes discursively, it was at the period of +its original initiation in London my privilege to be present; nor +must I omit to graphically allude to my belief, not choosing to be +otherwise than candid with my first impressions, that I had never +listened to anything which so rapturously illustrated the spirit of +those soul-elevating times; even to experiencing a passing pang, since +the perplexing principles or established secrets of decorative or +Æsthetic art, as understood by me, had so curiously been cajoled or +interwoven into the very sanctuary of Classic Music. Every phrase +appeared eloquently to illustrate and tell aloud the great burst +of passionate fervour, felt to be with serious activity glistening, +sparkling around, in painting and in decorative device. It was, as +it were the unition, the brazing together of these serious impinging +forces, and re-fusing them with fresher melody, newer vital ecstasy. +(Sir) Edward Burne Jones, Oscar Wilde and W.S. Gilbert had all not +dubiously striven nor for shallow effect. They had, though labouring +incessantly apart, built up a ghost which was in no fear of glimmering +or dissolution; and now Berthold Tours, spright of another element of +sentimental, I should say continental mythical music, upon the scene +springs with his amazing apparatus of staves and octaves, aiding the +_chef-de-musique_ and his trained voices to make sound within the +very presence chamber of Divine Worship this phantasmagoria of Teuton +intellectualism! + +Be it understood that this Classic exercise is not to be ceremoniously +regarded, nor classified, nor by me upheld as an example of Creative +Art, but as the brightest pledge of homage æsthetically offered to a +vital movement, essentially fundamental and wise; furthermore, must +be allowed to occupy a position subsidiary to the works of the artists +enumerated who evidently inspired it; unique and decidedly without an +exact parallel in the inspired annals of modern phonetic literature; +prefering at a more intimate examination to classify with it Professor +C. Villiers Stanford's setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate in +B flat--works, easily gracing the "Summus Mons" of co-spiritual +achievement; that impulse which selects, confirms, and then unites all +the fair fibres of Art. + +Berthold Tours personally possessed the evident characteristics of a +musician. No doubt could be entertained whatsoever, by any who once +saw him or his large meditative form, that music was his calling. The +duties inherent to the post of "music taster" to the house of Novello, +Ewer, & Co., he hopefully acquitted for many years, succeeding to +that office on the retirement of my once, in a choral sense, esteemed +conductor, Sir Joseph Barnby. The pianoforte accompaniment to many +of the classical works of continental composers he transcribed and +carefully arranged for his employers, whose confidence he completely +enjoyed, whether in addressing them on matters relative to prospective +treaties with contemporary composers, or in regard to works tendered +to them for publication, or on recommending them upon the pianoforte +arrangement of orchestral scores. Personally, I participated in the +satisfaction of frequently dining in his company. Amongst the +personal memories which I might in passing allude to, being my +entire deferential attitude towards him of reverence, ere ever being +acquainted with his patronymics, although already largely conversant +with, and a sincere admirer of his music. To have been spoken amiably +to by this distinguished "virtuoso" is a not unnoteworthy reminiscence +to be recorded. He evinced much concern in the early rehearsals of +his choral works; being individually present at the moment of their +preparation; but it not infrequently appeared to me ambiguous, that +unless accounted for by the responsibility of vast calls, he with +frequency turned his back upon the musical conservatories wherein +his choral works were performed; a custom due evidently to his innate +modesty, and perhaps to his susceptibilities as a foreigner. Berthold +Tours was a famous violinist of the first class, besides being a +recognised composer of music, and edited with Natalia Macfarren a +superb edition of the Italian, the German, and the French Operas. + +JOHN ATWOOD.SLATER, + +4, Hill Side, Cotham, Bristol. + + + + +_ARCHITECTURE._ + +_From the_ BRISTOL TIMES AND MIRROR, + +_April 18th_, 1902. + +BRISTOL SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS. + + +The Annual General Meeting of this society was held in the Fine +Arts Academy, Queen's Road, Clifton, on Monday, Mr. Frank W. Wills +(President) in the chair. After the confirmation of the minutes of the +last Annual General Meeting, the annual report of the council was then +read by the Hon. Secretary, and the audited accounts presented, and, +upon the motion of the PRESIDENT, were adopted. + +A highly interesting lecture devoted to architectural research was +delivered by Mr. J. ATWOOD SLATER, first silver medallist and premium +holder in design in the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Sharpe +Prizeman of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, +describing an architectural tour undertaken in 1880, and detailing +picturesquely the architecture and incidents of personal concern +dependent on travel met with in the departments of Seine Inférieure, +Seine and Oise, and Seine, penetrating into the heart of France as far +as Auxerre. The course of the Seine, with its diverse monuments, was +topographically followed from Harfleur to Paris, and subsequently +in its considerable ramification the stately River Yonne, Melun, +Fountainebleau, Sens, and finally the rich town of Auxerre coming +under consideration. The lecturer also drew special attention to the +advantage derived from travelling alone for the purpose of observing +better the archæological wealth, and the customs of the French, having +a distinct and definite line of study and object lesson ever in view; +to his wide sympathy with the French people, to their sumptuous care +for their ancient monuments, their courtesy and reverential manner of +hospitality towards English speaking students; and also in particular +to the unsuspicious, deferential manner in which they are entertained +and regarded by the Ministerial authorities: detailing in precise +biographical manner his experience with bourgeoisie and peasant, +ecclesiastic and soldier. He recorded also minutely the incidents and +popular events associated with travel, as study and the tide of time +goaded him onward, the wave of diurnal events lying upon the open page +of history, here dishevelled, here streaked with adverse episode, +and here becalmed. The hour being late, a hearty vote of thanks was +accorded the lecturer, and the hearing of the conclusion of a most +interesting tour was adjourned to another meeting. + + + + +_AQUATICS._ + +_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _August 2nd_, 1902. + +SWIM AROUND ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. + + +On Wednesday, a visitor to Marazion, Mr. J. ATWOOD.SLATER, from +Bristol, in a sea for tranquility suited for the saline venture, swam +completely round St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall. Accompanied by a local +boatman the swimmer rowed out from the mainland, quitting his boat, +and entering ten fathoms in depth of water at two o'clock. A mean +distance of a hundred yards from the coast was, whilst the circuit was +made, preserved. No inconvenience of any sort--excepting, towards +the conclusion,--the chilliness of the water, was encountered; the +distance of one mile and a half being accomplished in the space and +record time of three-quarters of an hour. The swimmer at the finish +expressed himself entirely satisfied with the nerve and capacity of +his boatman (Ivey) and accorded a tribute to the romantic style in +which the Mount and Castle proper are kept. The view from the watery +verge being replete with quaint interest and delightsome variety. The +previous occasion to this feat being performed was three summers ago, +when Lady Agnes Townshend, and six years since, when Colonel Townshend +swam the same distance; but no other authentic instance is credited, +or preserved on record. The swimmer on this latest occasion is a +Royal Academy exhibitor, and the designer of the subject panels in the +reredos in the neighbouring Cathedral of Truro; having moreover aided +the architect, now deceased, of the Cathedral of Cornwall in other +departments of Architectural service. + + + + +_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _September 4th,_ 1902. + +LONG DISTANCE SWIMS. + +IN A CORNER OF MOUNT'S BAY. + +(BY THE SWIMMER). + + +On Thursday, August 14th, Mr. J. Atwood Slater, then staying at +Marazion, who, as recorded in a recent issue, swam completely round +St. Michael's Mount, made an attempt to swim from St. Michael's Mount +to Newlyn. With his boatman (Ivey), he started from Marazion, entering +the water at S.W. corner of the Mount. + +Whilst engaged in the preliminaries of the start a moment of suspense +was passed, the distance appearing sufficient (when out of water) to +unnerve all but the most intrepid of swimmers. Striking out in the +direction of Newlyn, and using the breast stroke, the shore and +beetling Mount were gradually left behind, but when a full distance of +a mile and a half was covered, a swell got up from the S.W. and blew +a quantity of water into the face of the swimmer. At each impulse +progress becoming extremely difficult; nevertheless a yet further +interval of half a mile was placed to the swimmer's credit; when, +deeming it impracticable to continue further, and having covered +relatively more than half the distance, in a mood of chagrin, he +re-entered his boat. + +Then seizing the oars, and murmuring an ejaculatory note to the ocean +which had sent him not a few malign caresses, he pulled, boatman, +craft and all to Marazion; the time exactly occupied in the exploit, +of two miles and an eighth, being forty-five minutes. + +On Saturday, August 23rd, Mr. Slater again, taking with him E. John, +swam in deep water, from close to the pier head St. Michael's Mount +to a point contiguous to Longrock; a distance of a mile and an eighth. +Progress was without hap or hindrance, though in a grey misty light. +At length, whilst the disappearing sun sank to rest behind a belt of +clouds, parted asunder over Penzance, the boatman was called upon to +draw in his boat, the swimmer thereupon going on board. + +Experience gained upon these occasions teaches that it emphatically +requires greater nerve to swim in the open sea, always going straight +in deep water, than is called for when propelling oneself round the +Mount. + +Again, on Tuesday, at ten minutes to two, the swimmer, to confirm his +past exploits and as a climax to his stay in Mount's Bay, swam from +Venton cove to St. Michael's Mount, rather in excess of a mile, +in thirty-one minutes, Ivey, his boatman merely steering his boat +alongside. + +It is the swimmer's opinion, that the timing of mid, or half stroke, +is the most elegant, most difficult, and to conceal, yet fully make +use of this "break," constitutes the criterion as to whether the +swimmer, be he amateur or professional, is first-class or not. + + + + +_From the_ EXMOUTH JOURNAL, _Sept. 6th_, 1902 + +A NOTEWORTHY SWIM. + + +A long swim from Exmouth to half-a-mile beyond the pier of Starcross, +was on Thursday evening undertaken and accomplished by Mr. J. +ATWOOD.SLATER, an Exmouth visitor. Starting from opposite the pier +head, the swimmer, piloted by Mr. H. Tupman, in the _Ernest_, swam +round the Bight on the west side of the Warren, passing the ships +anchored therein, and hugging the west shore of the Exe, paused +finally under the lodge at the further end of Starcross at 5.45 p.m., +having, in logic swum the distance of two-and-a-quarter miles in +twenty-three minutes. The aid the swimmer derived from choosing the +flood tide he admitted was considerable, and served him for nearly +half the distance; when out of the influence of this, the water +suddenly became very choppy, the waves being too small for the swimmer +to time, yet with annoying frequency throwing their crests above the +surface of the water. Subsequently a great stillness was encountered, +until Starcross was neared and passed; the boat, swimmer and pilot +lying finally becalmed at the point aforesaid.--J.A.S. + + + + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Sept. 15th_, 1903. + +A SWIM ROUND MONT ST. MICHAEL, NORMANDY. + + +Sir,--On August 22nd, at 5 p.m., on August 28th, at 9 a.m., and on +August 29th, at 10 a.m., I achieved in a more successful measure than +had hitherto been accomplished the problem of swimming round Mont +St. Michael, Normandy, at high water. Previously acquainted with the +certainty that an adverse current would at one point or another be +met, I pre-arranged, and made three bold attempts, and by going in a +certain direction, met with the greatest success at the first essay. +The tides that rise and flow against the base of the mount are more +insidious and taxing to strike against than those which encircle the +Mount of St. Michael, in Cornwall; but then the quality of the sea +must be more pure and far more buoyant off the Cornish coast, and +freshens to a greater extent the elastic movements of the swimmer. The +sea, speaking from experience, does not harass one, swimming in the +bay of St. Michael, Normandy, until the "retirage" is met; when all +the force that can be exerted is necessarily called forth to prevent +being seaward swept. + +Yours faithfully, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +Albi, Tarn, France, + +_September 7th_, 1903. + + + + +_ARCHITECTURE._ + +_From the_ PATRIOTE ALBIGEOIS, _Sept. 29th,_ 1903. + + +Albigeois, vous qui passez fréquemment dans les rues adjacentes à +votre cathédrale, n'avez-vous pas remarqué la figure d'un artiste +récemment installé, avec son chevalet, auprès du gigantesque monument +et mettant toute la science technique de son art à le reproduire +exactement. + +C'est M. John ATWOOD.SLATER qui avait visité notre cité, il y a +quelques années, il avait alors dessiné une belle perspective de +Sainte-Cécile qu'il a exposée à l'Académie Royale de Londres. Il a +admiré la plupart des cathédrales gothiques de notre pays et, en fin +connaisseur, il nous informe que nous possédons un des plus recherchés +specimens d'architecture qui existent en France. Quelques-unes de ces +cathédrales sont à peine plus merveilleuses, mais il n'en est guère +qui se prêtent favorablement comme elle à l'esprit tranquille de +dévotion. + +Maintenant pour le profit de ceux a qui cela pourrait faire plaisir +M. John ATWOOD.SLATER, cet artist nous communique bénévolement ce +renseignegnement très spécial: Il est encore fort nageur! C'est +lui qui aux dates de 22, 28 et 29 août a été signalé par la Normandie +pour avoir fait à la nage le tour du Mont St. Michel: ce que personne +jusqu'ici n'avait osé prétendre faire à cause des marées qui sont +toujours très contraires.--J.A.S. + + + + +UNPUBLISHED LETTERS. + +_MUSIC._ + +_To the Editor of The Times, London._ + + +Sir,--Whilst admitting the all-importance and the austere role of +circumstance weighted with interest, and fused to an all-volatile +point sufficient to write to you concerning, and always entering, +freed from _schism_, the moot point, I beg leave to advance the +suggestion that (with correct apposition of sentiment, already said) +the moment has arrived for an improvement to be effected in the +Hymnal, in the public offices of St. Paul's Cathedral employed. + +For the furtherance of this important item of diocesan and divine +service, "Hymns, Ancient and Modern," be it well known, has stood +the crucial test of a number of years; while its mechanical +characteristics have been demonstrated all the way along the metronome +number of decades it has served to mollify and assuage the griefs +and passions, and inspire the consciences of congregations using it +habitually as a _vade mecum_. + +While believing in the sedate grandeur of its stereotyped orthodoxy, +I powerfully plead, and in a tone of restraint, this prerogative: that +the edition of hymns known as "The Hymnary," should upon examination +be found to contain more agreeable, versatile value and fecundity +of literary nutrition: honourably and scholastically capable of +out-classing the rival for whose displacement I plead; and competent +at once to put yet better light with wholesomer sustenance and rarer +spiritual food into the minds of its privileged students. + +The ideas and principles conceived by the once editors and publishers +of the volume whose richly bestraught merits I champion, and whose +solemn rights I plead, (in the year 1871), was to place in society +at once, all electrified, au prémier coup canonized (armed at +all points), a work which should at a moment be complete in law; +self-contained and academically referable to the stringent junctures +of an ecclesiastical, a national, and a polyphonetic tribunal: a +work which should loyally attract the acclaim of co-existing literary +hymnals, and ever would, it was reverently hoped--a sentiment which I, +for one, favourably concur in--remain, the key-symbol of the Reformed, +Anglican faith, with its near, true, and ever new ally--a note as +high, silvery and jurisprudential; purified domestic co-partnership! + +To further substantiate and enhance my devoutly expressed remarks, I +confidently state that the compilation of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" +was not originally in fact the outcome of an individual movement, or +yet of a moment. At periods diverse, and at stages various, it matured +its conditional purpose by repeated acts of regeneration and reform, +by keeping generally within the radius of a stereotyped policy of +pruning and paring; which consolidated by degrees and swept it on to +the confines and the platform of its national respectability. + +Be it even tacitly acknowledged, in surveying the genesis of Hymnology +that the function of revision has once been, a fact, applied to the +"Hymns Ancient and Modern" since the appearance of "The Hymnary," +in my estimation under a less searching eye than that which all +impartially discriminated and directed, at one and at one time only, +the laying together and the consolidating of the "particles predelix" +of this frankincense offering of the National Church; a work of +classic intent and æsthetic outcome. Personal labour designed it +_purposely_ for the hearts of men, but not for their _faces_; a +character which, Christian-like, it inseparably wears, like French +martial music. + +Herein exemplified to noble British hearts is a bulwark that at once +completely puts to rout no inconsiderable amount of the mildew mould +of "Hymns Ancient and Modern," while never so much as tarnishing or +jeopardizing the aroma of its native asceticism. + +Interested bibliophiles may peruse pleasantly the trenchant remarks +launched by the editors, (of the work upheld) literary and musical; +and examine for their predilection by turning its pages the analytical +merit of its composer's names; all serious-minded men; capable +lamp-bearers in the wide arcana of classic music. + +Stoical people do not know the wealth of chaste language stored up +within the covers of "The Hymnary." A rare musician-poet is needed +to resolve its pulpy flavour and discipline to the polemics of common +life; whilst one, a connoisseur, would readily congratulate the +sanguine, sensible, and all-seeing management, as regards to authors +of words, indices of composers, indices of metres, metronome marks, +which heralds and places it, in respect of completeness, ahead of all +contemporaneous editions. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER, + +_Medallist & Premium Holder of the Royal Academy of Arts, London._ + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_Epiphany, 1903._ + + + + +_LITERATURE._ + +_To the Editor of_ THE BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE. + +_March_, 1903. + + +Sir,--Touched by a virtuous sense that a noble writer has passed from +the central and celestial sphere of his vocation, and discharging the +offices of respect voluntarily admitted as a literary admirer, with +sympathy in a bruised state of liquefaction, I maintain that the +season for uttering a few words is clearly at hand, and should be +turned to the advantage of retrospect. + +Being bred of a generation which has read, with a spirit attuned +to the pleasant influences of an Academic and a Saracenic art, the +writings of John Henry Shorthouse, and ever discovering them to +contain philosophic importance and pyschologic expression decidedly +above the astuteness and ability of average writers; and having +usually in them remarked wisdom, council and knowledge reminiscent +of the inspired logicial writers and divines of the law-given +Testaments; in point of enquiry, I am summarily induced to champion +the belief that the psychologic, emphatic style adopted by the writer, +with the success in high quarters attendant the disposal of his +works, has not, convincingness being the indicator, been reached, nor +surpassed. The Warwickshire alchemist invariably throws across his +scenes and to the centre, a glare, a strong ray, which burns to the +water-line the barque of Agnosticism. This is tacitly recognised, +concurrently and alternately traced in the selection of the phrases, +and in the subtle or dramatic sense of the scene photographed; the +second inspiration springing into immediate co-operation, linking to +the first the thought by a magnetised hyphen, causes his symbolistic +pictures to thrive gloriously, rapturously; the first touch of +sensitized matter at times appearing grotesque, dimly lit, although +never flimsy. This pedantic, pictorial, even scholarly system by our +revered writer adopted, is bent, applied to meet extreme passes of +imaginative perfection and delicacy. The picture is naïvely introduced +and obscurely, somewhat trenchantly elaborated, allows itself to be +apologetically understood; whilst in succession the lower taste +for animal sentiment is sorcerized by vivid flashes of captivating +contrast, forked, as lightning, and left, as embers smouldering to +glow in the crucible of memory's recesses. Specious instances of irony +playing the manliest part: flashes of meteoric, mesmeric eloquence, +fitfully flecking the embossed page, as one tier or set of ideas, +in rhetoric orchestration, symphonizes with or eclipses another. +Connection, an element of robust mesmeric cohesion with this prized +author being the adamantine hyphen, the articulating link, which +compacts the roll. John Henry Shorthouse, the templar, the confessor +of music, was, and concurrently, the apologist of philosophic light. +Engaged to a powerful mechanism of romantic dogma, the nett article of +its creed; the neochromatic acoustic regalia of stage eloquence, +the key, or longest recurrent note; the van or middle the next, the +sinuous lever of stage discipline. After all, concurrently may it +not, be said that this colour instinct aspect of cosmically conceived +romanticism is never wilfully vulgarized. For its incomparable, +iconographical purpose it exists, and is as intrinsically useful and +serviceable to the scheme as the figures which admirably illustrate +the pictures of Hogarth and Holman Hunt. When introduced, music is +rarely intended to edge itself into the important place of "first +study." This in alchemy or personification being occupied by the +circumstantial cruxes of life, philosophic morality, vested usually +in courtly attire; I would not say abstract attire, for the clean-cut +character it bears is too strictly defined (for the sake of that +Artist's art) for such an impression to be born, or even to lurk by +sentiment, there beneath. + +The mould employed at all times is minutely fashioned, as a sculptor +would, by investing his model with a code of spirituality, inspired +with fire, which epicureanly endows fleeting emotion with a voice, and +vitality lends also to distant-reaching invisible ends: hinting that +the picturesque alchemy of music is potential too in reaching and +touching the lower chords of animal passion, where movement is rapid +and light redundant. The breast of the thoughtful writer heaved ever +to animal instincts without measure in extolling the complex phases +of court, ecclesiastic, and domestic oligarchy. Statesmanship and +subjunction rise and peacefully sink together, and in his magnetic +touch, are made to harmoniously coalesce in the political balance. +Shorthouse the author, a believer in, a champion was of two-fold or +dual cosmos: his colour sense being susceptible to and wrought upon in +singular consular consistence with the effulgent dogmas of its +creed, and in alliance with the spirit of the _cinque cento_ Italian +Renaissance Schools of Painting and Architecture. Practically +speaking, he conceived a train of adept ideas, at times fanciful, and +at times morbid, transforming them adroitly by adept excursions of +cross-lit introspection, accentuation, and by dint of manual caress, +as the first of players upon stringed instruments. + +Music, I would apologetically infer, being the middle, the rallying +feature, of Mr. J.H. Shorthouse's verbose apology. If fictionizing in +prose, he writes with brief orange-hued flashes of liquid ether; each +of short, all but, brief span. Characteristically, he belongs to the +same school and unapproachable law as the French organist-composer, +C.M. Widor: stringent, petulant observance of free uncurbed metronome +time, allied to picturesque handling; punctuality of tidal consort +rigidly regarding, when each, the one to the other, linked; less a +care, by virtuous intuition displaying for lyric measure. The writings +of Nathaniel Hawthorne more forcibly and piquantly evince cylindrical +flow, and strike at the object lesson with less artificial, _cadavre_, +fastidious touch; but Mr. Shorthouse, speaking strictly, as to temper +and _tempo_ is a trifle more rugged; and never a shadow of suspense +suffered he to stir a hand's breadth, that is, rest 'twixt poetic +certainty and doubt, lest the ultimate end should all-attainable be +or not. For freedom from this, and other literary ambiguity, yet never +manifesting anxiety of freeing himself in prose from its insidious and +arbitrary restraint, I attribute his tragical, subtle, gentle power of +"connection," _liaison_; feeling for time; planetary time, be it lunar +time, sometimes unmistakably, solar time; disallowing, by potency of +sentimental touch, a sense of rupture, to linger. A noble stream by +mute comparison, pursuing its course unwavering; interrupted but now +and again, to the vast expansive ocean of shapeliness, of unity. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER, + +_Premium Holder & Medallist +of the Royal Academy of Arts, +London._ + +Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Letters and Biographic +Epitomes, by J. Atwood.Slater + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGINAL LETTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 13203-8.txt or 13203-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/0/13203/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Melissa Er-Raqabi and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/13203-8.zip b/old/13203-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3958529 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13203-8.zip diff --git a/old/13203.txt b/old/13203.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f46446b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13203.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1314 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes +by J. Atwood.Slater + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Original Letters and Biographic Epitomes + +Author: J. Atwood.Slater + +Release Date: August 17, 2004 [EBook #13203] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGINAL LETTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Melissa Er-Raqabi and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + + + + +[Transcriber's note: The spelling inconsistencies of the original have been +retained in this etext.] + + + +ORIGINAL LETTERS + +AND + +BIOGRAPHIC EPITOMES + + +BY + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +PREMIUM HOLDER IN DESIGN, AND SILVER MEDALLIST +OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS, LONDON, + +SHARPE PRIZEMAN OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE OF +BRITISH ARCHITECTS, LONDON, + +CERTIFICATED STUDENT OF THE SLADE SCHOOL OF +FINE ARTS, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. + + + +LONDON: + +SPRAGUE & CO., LIMITED, 4 & 5 EAST HARDING STREET, E.C. + + + + +_PAINTING._ + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 20th_, 1901. + +AN IMPRESSION OF "ECCE HOMO." + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_. + + +Sir,--First impressions forced upon me by an inspection of the +picture, "Ecce Homo," by Mons. de Munkacsy, would be succinctly +expressed in few words. It is haply, although not highly, inspired. It +constitutes a work of laborious but of average ability, and descends +to a lower technical state of imaginative eclecticism and expression +than I had indeed expected to encounter in so lavishly-applauded a +work. Let it be granted in the first instance that the theme is an +onerous one; the problem afforded by the venture should have been +met in a manner skilful in art, commensurate with its righteous +obligations and its lofty demands by the artist. The one fine +attribute conspicuously lacking in the work is its illumination, +generally too yellow; the fine quality of light, naturally directing +the hearts with the intelligences of the beholder to the central fact +of the subject theme, "I am the Light of the World." The broad use and +disposition of whitish pigment; I mean whitish, snowy light flecked, +pimpled, dimpled with tints of orange and purple, like snow about to +thaw, here and there, honeycombed or stippled to mark the intensity of +its native regard for its own divine, suffering, martyred Lord, would +have attracted the attention and won the curiosity, the sympathy, of +many finer sensibilities. A dramatic and subtle sense of distance, +such a powerful agent of spiritual injection in the hands of real +artists is in this work absent; never skilfully employed either for +negative or positive reflections of emotion. Linear perspective there +is, and employed to much scenic advantage; but aerial perspective, +utilised towards expressing overlapping figures, there is not, save +in meagre degree. The canvas is too crowded, the sense of vision +and admiration is nowhere at all lulled by repose. We may point +to successful juxtaposition of individual figures, to masses of +harmonious tones, but not to masterly composition. The mind of the +artist is intent upon the bitterness of turmoil; it does not reach us +directly by imperishably revealing or extolling the divine nature of +"The Man," "Homo;" and is throughout the field of interest usually +recognised in overstrained partiality for attitude and outline. +Hence the title of the picture is almost sought for, expected in the +multitude on the left, which should have been isolated. "Ecce Homo," +briefly and emphatically, is not so suitable a title as I would +suggest, with the utmost regard for reverence, might be described, as +the interval between the two cries: "Away with Him," "Crucify Him," +such intensely dramatic particles of time finding expression and vent +throughout the work in coarse silhouetting. + +The crowding of the lawless throng against the front of the tribune, +on which the chief characters of the scene are portrayed, though not +in a material sense wrong, must be open to much aesthetic dispute; +must mar the success and the action of reflex thought, the spiritual +contest waging and recoiling between the Divine, meek victim and the +surging rabble. At all events, it is sad to trace no direct or secret +hint at new or transcendental methods conspicuous or even dimly +apparent in the painter's art. Little there is in the effort to draw +our finer instincts to spiritual truths. The utmost mechanical skill +of the diligent artist is discernible, labouring incessantly without +extraordinary or transcendental light to the appointed end, the goal +accomplished. It should be understood that as spiritual Art of its own +property and nature is beset, environed on all impinging sides with a +multifold range, a series of difficult corners around which the +sense cannot immediately travel, but would for the fructification or +sustentation's sake of its etherealism, a process of counter argument +may deduce this aphorism, that in works of art in which the eye +travels quickly round all the corners of thought, motive, and +expression, the priceless, highest crown of spirituality cannot be +awarded to it. The painter, honestly striving with his subject, and +on lines of intimate understanding, has none of his physical reasons +thrown into shade, either be it for the nobility of his art, or for +urgency's sake, or for the softer assuaging of sensitiveness in the +breasts of his academic audience, having no inclination to be stung +when in the precincts, the hands of Art; for to whom else is the +pictorial homily directed? The group of figures upon the raised +tribune is classically adjusted to its position of prominence. The +spare figure of Christ, "The Man of Sorrows," is well conceived; the +face is wan, haggard, the attitude tastefully depicted. A palpable and +perilous digression is made by the artist in ignoring the text of +Holy Writ, "Wearing the purple robe," electing to substitute for the +purpose of his science a scarlet "toga." But the "torso"! This is +essentially lacking in consummate understanding, skilful address. +In all that assists most to mature a native work of this immense +importance it is sound sense, equivalent to the gravest optimism, to +express this opinion, that the highest powers of science ought humbly, +intelligently to co-operate towards achieving a grand and triumphant +finale, perfect, harmonious in all its parts, and responsible to the +academic dictates of its sacred title. Such a figure Raphael, Leonardo +da Vinci, Titian, or Rubens would have painted and blessed our reasons +with, for a certainty: bountifully inspiring us at once and for +time with their divine interpretation of the great, the majestic +omnipotence. + +Any failure in Art cannot rouse us to this pitch; our sensitive, +appreciative spirits would assuredly flag unless some keynote of +resonant power were sounded. + +The figure of Pontius Pilate is realistically depicted; it has not the +aristocratic air of a Roman Governor, yet the face, not caring to +meet the gaze of the people, is a work exhibiting some power. It +sardonically, satirically suggests the thought, "I find in Him no +fault at all," possessing a semblance of three meanings. The people, +deputy officers, and supernumeraries assembled upon this elevation +are somewhat stiffly grouped, and the architectonic embellishments--no +unimportant feature--well conceived, as they form the framework of the +drama, and must be considered well painted. Let it be observed that +the basket capital of the arch is out of perspective; a like error is +to be observed in the roof of certain of the houses on the left; +the blue of the distance, although luminous and atmospheric, is too +opaque. The arches forming the left-hand middle distance are finely +depicted; correct as far as local traditional art will inform us, +and of considerable value in such a work as ballast, substance, in +steadying the erratic fancies or emotions of the painter. Criticism +must justly deal with the figures of the Jewish rabble. The attitudes +are telling, but over angular and rather vulgar. The populace, I +may remark, are too excited; such sustained, extravagant attitudes, +whether in a picture of large or small scale, but particularly in the +former, are upon canvas rarely satisfactory; they mock with littleness +at a Providence that made Art, and become puppets in the hands of +artists. The heads of not a few of the spectators are too large, +coarse, and expressionless. Here and there, in the distance for +instance, amongst the living panorama, there appears a figure hinting +at a better type of gesture, with a human heart, suggesting an +acquaintance with refinement, but the breadth of awe, the girdle +of salvatory redemption, even in coarse brutality is not even here +apparent. The work is a mute exposition of gesture. The higher, the +acute, the really more intense connection of poetry is absent. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Feb. 25th, 1901_ + +"ECCE HOMO." + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press._ + + +Sir,--A correspondent whose letter is to-day published, calling +attention to my remarks upon the celebrated picture "Ecce Homo," of +February 20th, cannot, I suppose have understood that the motive which +impelled me in my previous letter was that the enlightenment of the +public having the interest of art might follow; next to whom, as +derivees of fresher, newer light, the spectators of the painting +"Ecce Homo," impersonally and politely apostrophised as "his academic +audience," may now be mentioned. Neither fault nor question was found +with any of such for so being; your correspondent introduced this side +view, I believe, irrelevantly--but with the picture alone. + +The mission of art royal should, I hold, be understood to elevate, +to raise the public taste, to cultivate or correct a wrong line of +popular impression; that of pictures of the like of "Ecce Homo," being +to enlighten the current interest for whose delight moreover art, +from a social point of view, is justified in its mission, having a yet +higher motive, the kindling of rapture in the heart of the creative +artist. + +Pictures since earlier times have been vehicles as well as ventilators +of popular belief. It is for this cause, and in instances where it is +proven, painful to touch or shake the constitutive elements of other +people's faith; an acute sense of this compunction on the whole +restraining the weight of my recent remarks. But, conjecturally +speaking, in a world wherein all things are so public, it must be +conceded that strong light should at stated times fuse the impinging +points of understanding, that truth and common sense may scrutinise +their sound bearings; moreover, also, that academic science may +arraign itself with dignity. + +Your correspondent's remarks with reference to the colour of the +robe are, upon the whole, useful, purple and scarlet being synonymous +terms; preponderance of mention, rests though with the former. + +Pictures cannot be considered too much as books; such truth, Art, by +the concurrence of testimony, has manifested in its destiny from time +immemorial, confirming afresh benefits on man. Open discussion will +not only add to, magnify, or deduct from their lustre, but cause their +aims, in short, to redound to the public weal. Such being so, it is +rational to expect an expression of opinion thereupon. They are not, +universally, to be regarded as graven tablets, to be gazed at, nor to +be received as infallible oracles of law. They are--at the same time, +barometers, charts, and weather-glasses--chronicles towards the fine +ends of justice, peace and mercy. + +Your correspondent has stated that my remarks are ambiguous. They may +have been technical and recondite, but, as such, are excusable, and, +in their sphere, just. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + +_SOCIAL SCIENCE._ + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Aug. 1st_, 1901. + +LOCOMOTIVE STEAM WHISTLES. + +_To the Editor of the Western Daily Press_. + + +Sir,--It is essential, and, according to my instincts of decorum, +necessary, to call the attention of those charged with authority in +such matters, and the public generally, to the growing misuse, in the +hands of engineers, of the locomotive steam whistle, the employment +thereof having especially in town districts, grown to be out of all +dimensions of private service, injurious to those whether officially +called, or who, pending the pleasure of mercantile circumstance, are +publicly obliged to pursue abstruse mental occupation, necessitating +labour and much concentration of though[t]. A reasonable use of this +means, or instrument, of signal and alarm, must be conceded to +those in whose hands resides its use, but at the same time a firm +directorship or jurisdiction ought to repress its extravagant or +wanton employment. + +To warn passengers of the starting and of the approach of trains +only a moderate application of the whistle is needed, whilst for the +diplomatic the discreet purpose of practical manoeuvre, namely, to +draw the attention of signalmen to the passing of points by trains, +extra power is requisite; but the gruesome display, I maintain, of +vocative sounds tuned to an intellectual point of mood is needless. + +Those daily engaged upon manual work only are not in a like manner +affected, though for all reasons of civil and common honour the +supercilious cry referred to should be deprecated. Rather tune and +sound the whistle to two simultaneous notes in sharp, brief accent +than that the chambers of the minds of the hearers of those sounds +should be so continuously, remorselessly entered. Anything lengthy +aggravates the auditory crisis. The stream of daily occupation with +the set purpose of sedentary exploit is competent to regulate itself +without an articulate "voice" from the railway companies. + +I am, Sir, faithfully yours, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_July 29th_, 1901. + + + + +_SCULPTURE_. + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Nov. 16th_, 1901. + +ALFRED STEVENS, SCULPTOR. + +ADDRESS BY MR. J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + + +Sir,--I send you with the thought that you may wish to publish them +the precise substance of my remarks verbally delivered at the meeting +of the Bristol Society of Architects, November 11th, on which occasion +a refreshing paper upon the works of Alfred Stevens was delivered, a +man of high artistic repute, whose fame in this district is but dimly +recognised, being of another parent soil. + +Yours faithfully, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER. + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_Nov. 12th_, 1901. + + +Mr. Slater spoke as follows:--The importance of the moment bids me +hasten with all seriousness to support the special retribution of +plausible justice, amounting to adulation, which has been lavished +on the labours of the distinguished English sculptor. Had it been +necessary I should have travelled a greater distance to have paid with +my testimony homage to the words of this evening's lecturer. It is not +saying more than the truth will allow me, or admitting more than my +own poignant feelings may to such expression give justification, +when I confirm with my lips the belief that I have for much time +dispassionately held that Alfred Stevens, with Turner, were the first +artists that England produced from the middle of the eighteenth to +that of the nineteenth centuries; and that, compared with the great +oracles of the past, he reasonably approaches Michael Angelo, who he +unquestionably touches and sometimes surpasses. To state my views, +having received elementary drawing instructions from a friend of +Stevens, I think that there is evidence, in carefully examining +the figures upon the Wellington Monument and the Dorchester House +chimney-piece a finer knowledge of line in Stevens's work. Michael +Angelo's Medici figures, and indeed, his other famous works, are not +so unequivocably good; the effigies superimposing the sarcophagi are, +for brief instance, "pillowy," though they may be more anatomic. The +suavity of nature's hypo-refined grace is not traceable in their easy +posture. The fact is, that they pose for something; generally their +own animal idiosyncrasy, if not respectable vanity. Stevens's figures, +on the contrary, always for their own decency, which throws into the +core, the heart of the monument such an expression of beauty, giving +rise to the word innate, quenching the sense of frivolity, which +unrestrained, disordered state of things oozes out somewhere, or is at +any rate felt "in the air" in Michael Angelo's works. Stevens's head +was wonderfully poised on his own "torso" to know and feel this with +such thrilling, vital, consistent certainty. You catch awhile his +lovely idea in the strong fragrant symmetry permeating his work. The +iron soul of the man implants his lines of strength far inside +the actual bounds of the visible crust, and the mind of the idea, +naturally expanding is caught at the salient "processes" in curves +and features, betokening nothing--that touches--but grace. I should +mention that there is one fact which describes minutely my veneration +for Stevens's work at its best, perhaps the fullest; whereby I mean +that inspection of his intellectual labour has always restored to me +the time so wisely occupied in regarding it, proving that there is +goodness, virtue, essence in it, past all fellowship with ephemeral +things. There is a true, not a laconic, logical, and prophetic +inference in it that is apropriately styled, "time"; the finest +embodiment of musical equipoise; felt to a "tick"; no faltering, +barbaric, or false quantities, but a sustained and equable, uniform +tone of chromatic measure, meted out as by a mind imbued by but +sacrificing the scale of colour to its own actual, achieved end. One +misses the heated passion of Watts's best pictures, which flow through +the ordered channel of recognisable expression and make one adore +them as poetry. But there, of a truth, invidious comparison ends, +and reticence shall ever guard the space that intervenes betwixt the +grounds sacred to the exposition of the embodiment of these master +lights. + + + + +_MUSIC._ + +_From the_ BATH CHRONICLE, _January 30th,_ 1902. + +MEDITATION ON BERTHOLD TOURS' EVENING SERVICE IN "D." + +_To the Editor of the Bath Chronicle._ + + +Sir,--Personally it occurs to me that in a public sense it may not +appear to be out of due place nor uninstructive to the readers of the +pages of the "Bath Chronicle," if they were allowed to pursue quietly +the "meditation" which I have thought fit, with, some amount of +feasible excuse, to set in fair order, concerning the apotheosis of +an evening service in musical form, from the versatile pen of Mr. +Berthold Tours, in the key of D, which, with no inconsiderable _eclat_ +was in the sequence of events, produced at St. Raphael's Church, +Bristol, on Sunday, the 12th inst. A companion to the graceful evening +service or setting of the appointed Canticles in F major, which be +it observed, is the most popular, and from a purely suitable point of +view, most successful of modern evening services, it marks a phase +of expression, at once ethereal and predilectious. Produced at a +more mature period, and under certainly different circumstances, it +confirms, honours indeed, the fecundity of the age of its inception, +namely, the era of British AEstheticism. + +Commenting upon its attributes discursively, it was at the period of +its original initiation in London my privilege to be present; nor +must I omit to graphically allude to my belief, not choosing to be +otherwise than candid with my first impressions, that I had never +listened to anything which so rapturously illustrated the spirit of +those soul-elevating times; even to experiencing a passing pang, since +the perplexing principles or established secrets of decorative or +AEsthetic art, as understood by me, had so curiously been cajoled or +interwoven into the very sanctuary of Classic Music. Every phrase +appeared eloquently to illustrate and tell aloud the great burst +of passionate fervour, felt to be with serious activity glistening, +sparkling around, in painting and in decorative device. It was, as +it were the unition, the brazing together of these serious impinging +forces, and re-fusing them with fresher melody, newer vital ecstasy. +(Sir) Edward Burne Jones, Oscar Wilde and W.S. Gilbert had all not +dubiously striven nor for shallow effect. They had, though labouring +incessantly apart, built up a ghost which was in no fear of glimmering +or dissolution; and now Berthold Tours, spright of another element of +sentimental, I should say continental mythical music, upon the scene +springs with his amazing apparatus of staves and octaves, aiding the +_chef-de-musique_ and his trained voices to make sound within the +very presence chamber of Divine Worship this phantasmagoria of Teuton +intellectualism! + +Be it understood that this Classic exercise is not to be ceremoniously +regarded, nor classified, nor by me upheld as an example of Creative +Art, but as the brightest pledge of homage aesthetically offered to a +vital movement, essentially fundamental and wise; furthermore, must +be allowed to occupy a position subsidiary to the works of the artists +enumerated who evidently inspired it; unique and decidedly without an +exact parallel in the inspired annals of modern phonetic literature; +prefering at a more intimate examination to classify with it Professor +C. Villiers Stanford's setting of the Te Deum and Jubilate in +B flat--works, easily gracing the "Summus Mons" of co-spiritual +achievement; that impulse which selects, confirms, and then unites all +the fair fibres of Art. + +Berthold Tours personally possessed the evident characteristics of a +musician. No doubt could be entertained whatsoever, by any who once +saw him or his large meditative form, that music was his calling. The +duties inherent to the post of "music taster" to the house of Novello, +Ewer, & Co., he hopefully acquitted for many years, succeeding to +that office on the retirement of my once, in a choral sense, esteemed +conductor, Sir Joseph Barnby. The pianoforte accompaniment to many +of the classical works of continental composers he transcribed and +carefully arranged for his employers, whose confidence he completely +enjoyed, whether in addressing them on matters relative to prospective +treaties with contemporary composers, or in regard to works tendered +to them for publication, or on recommending them upon the pianoforte +arrangement of orchestral scores. Personally, I participated in the +satisfaction of frequently dining in his company. Amongst the +personal memories which I might in passing allude to, being my +entire deferential attitude towards him of reverence, ere ever being +acquainted with his patronymics, although already largely conversant +with, and a sincere admirer of his music. To have been spoken amiably +to by this distinguished "virtuoso" is a not unnoteworthy reminiscence +to be recorded. He evinced much concern in the early rehearsals of +his choral works; being individually present at the moment of their +preparation; but it not infrequently appeared to me ambiguous, that +unless accounted for by the responsibility of vast calls, he with +frequency turned his back upon the musical conservatories wherein +his choral works were performed; a custom due evidently to his innate +modesty, and perhaps to his susceptibilities as a foreigner. Berthold +Tours was a famous violinist of the first class, besides being a +recognised composer of music, and edited with Natalia Macfarren a +superb edition of the Italian, the German, and the French Operas. + +JOHN ATWOOD.SLATER, + +4, Hill Side, Cotham, Bristol. + + + + +_ARCHITECTURE._ + +_From the_ BRISTOL TIMES AND MIRROR, + +_April 18th_, 1902. + +BRISTOL SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS. + + +The Annual General Meeting of this society was held in the Fine +Arts Academy, Queen's Road, Clifton, on Monday, Mr. Frank W. Wills +(President) in the chair. After the confirmation of the minutes of the +last Annual General Meeting, the annual report of the council was then +read by the Hon. Secretary, and the audited accounts presented, and, +upon the motion of the PRESIDENT, were adopted. + +A highly interesting lecture devoted to architectural research was +delivered by Mr. J. ATWOOD SLATER, first silver medallist and premium +holder in design in the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and Sharpe +Prizeman of the Royal Institute of British Architects, London, +describing an architectural tour undertaken in 1880, and detailing +picturesquely the architecture and incidents of personal concern +dependent on travel met with in the departments of Seine Inferieure, +Seine and Oise, and Seine, penetrating into the heart of France as far +as Auxerre. The course of the Seine, with its diverse monuments, was +topographically followed from Harfleur to Paris, and subsequently +in its considerable ramification the stately River Yonne, Melun, +Fountainebleau, Sens, and finally the rich town of Auxerre coming +under consideration. The lecturer also drew special attention to the +advantage derived from travelling alone for the purpose of observing +better the archaeological wealth, and the customs of the French, having +a distinct and definite line of study and object lesson ever in view; +to his wide sympathy with the French people, to their sumptuous care +for their ancient monuments, their courtesy and reverential manner of +hospitality towards English speaking students; and also in particular +to the unsuspicious, deferential manner in which they are entertained +and regarded by the Ministerial authorities: detailing in precise +biographical manner his experience with bourgeoisie and peasant, +ecclesiastic and soldier. He recorded also minutely the incidents and +popular events associated with travel, as study and the tide of time +goaded him onward, the wave of diurnal events lying upon the open page +of history, here dishevelled, here streaked with adverse episode, +and here becalmed. The hour being late, a hearty vote of thanks was +accorded the lecturer, and the hearing of the conclusion of a most +interesting tour was adjourned to another meeting. + + + + +_AQUATICS._ + +_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _August 2nd_, 1902. + +SWIM AROUND ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT. + + +On Wednesday, a visitor to Marazion, Mr. J. ATWOOD.SLATER, from +Bristol, in a sea for tranquility suited for the saline venture, swam +completely round St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall. Accompanied by a local +boatman the swimmer rowed out from the mainland, quitting his boat, +and entering ten fathoms in depth of water at two o'clock. A mean +distance of a hundred yards from the coast was, whilst the circuit was +made, preserved. No inconvenience of any sort--excepting, towards +the conclusion,--the chilliness of the water, was encountered; the +distance of one mile and a half being accomplished in the space and +record time of three-quarters of an hour. The swimmer at the finish +expressed himself entirely satisfied with the nerve and capacity of +his boatman (Ivey) and accorded a tribute to the romantic style in +which the Mount and Castle proper are kept. The view from the watery +verge being replete with quaint interest and delightsome variety. The +previous occasion to this feat being performed was three summers ago, +when Lady Agnes Townshend, and six years since, when Colonel Townshend +swam the same distance; but no other authentic instance is credited, +or preserved on record. The swimmer on this latest occasion is a +Royal Academy exhibitor, and the designer of the subject panels in the +reredos in the neighbouring Cathedral of Truro; having moreover aided +the architect, now deceased, of the Cathedral of Cornwall in other +departments of Architectural service. + + + + +_From the_ CORNISHMAN, _September 4th,_ 1902. + +LONG DISTANCE SWIMS. + +IN A CORNER OF MOUNT'S BAY. + +(BY THE SWIMMER). + + +On Thursday, August 14th, Mr. J. Atwood Slater, then staying at +Marazion, who, as recorded in a recent issue, swam completely round +St. Michael's Mount, made an attempt to swim from St. Michael's Mount +to Newlyn. With his boatman (Ivey), he started from Marazion, entering +the water at S.W. corner of the Mount. + +Whilst engaged in the preliminaries of the start a moment of suspense +was passed, the distance appearing sufficient (when out of water) to +unnerve all but the most intrepid of swimmers. Striking out in the +direction of Newlyn, and using the breast stroke, the shore and +beetling Mount were gradually left behind, but when a full distance of +a mile and a half was covered, a swell got up from the S.W. and blew +a quantity of water into the face of the swimmer. At each impulse +progress becoming extremely difficult; nevertheless a yet further +interval of half a mile was placed to the swimmer's credit; when, +deeming it impracticable to continue further, and having covered +relatively more than half the distance, in a mood of chagrin, he +re-entered his boat. + +Then seizing the oars, and murmuring an ejaculatory note to the ocean +which had sent him not a few malign caresses, he pulled, boatman, +craft and all to Marazion; the time exactly occupied in the exploit, +of two miles and an eighth, being forty-five minutes. + +On Saturday, August 23rd, Mr. Slater again, taking with him E. John, +swam in deep water, from close to the pier head St. Michael's Mount +to a point contiguous to Longrock; a distance of a mile and an eighth. +Progress was without hap or hindrance, though in a grey misty light. +At length, whilst the disappearing sun sank to rest behind a belt of +clouds, parted asunder over Penzance, the boatman was called upon to +draw in his boat, the swimmer thereupon going on board. + +Experience gained upon these occasions teaches that it emphatically +requires greater nerve to swim in the open sea, always going straight +in deep water, than is called for when propelling oneself round the +Mount. + +Again, on Tuesday, at ten minutes to two, the swimmer, to confirm his +past exploits and as a climax to his stay in Mount's Bay, swam from +Venton cove to St. Michael's Mount, rather in excess of a mile, +in thirty-one minutes, Ivey, his boatman merely steering his boat +alongside. + +It is the swimmer's opinion, that the timing of mid, or half stroke, +is the most elegant, most difficult, and to conceal, yet fully make +use of this "break," constitutes the criterion as to whether the +swimmer, be he amateur or professional, is first-class or not. + + + + +_From the_ EXMOUTH JOURNAL, _Sept. 6th_, 1902 + +A NOTEWORTHY SWIM. + + +A long swim from Exmouth to half-a-mile beyond the pier of Starcross, +was on Thursday evening undertaken and accomplished by Mr. J. +ATWOOD.SLATER, an Exmouth visitor. Starting from opposite the pier +head, the swimmer, piloted by Mr. H. Tupman, in the _Ernest_, swam +round the Bight on the west side of the Warren, passing the ships +anchored therein, and hugging the west shore of the Exe, paused +finally under the lodge at the further end of Starcross at 5.45 p.m., +having, in logic swum the distance of two-and-a-quarter miles in +twenty-three minutes. The aid the swimmer derived from choosing the +flood tide he admitted was considerable, and served him for nearly +half the distance; when out of the influence of this, the water +suddenly became very choppy, the waves being too small for the swimmer +to time, yet with annoying frequency throwing their crests above the +surface of the water. Subsequently a great stillness was encountered, +until Starcross was neared and passed; the boat, swimmer and pilot +lying finally becalmed at the point aforesaid.--J.A.S. + + + + +_From the_ WESTERN DAILY PRESS, _Sept. 15th_, 1903. + +A SWIM ROUND MONT ST. MICHAEL, NORMANDY. + + +Sir,--On August 22nd, at 5 p.m., on August 28th, at 9 a.m., and on +August 29th, at 10 a.m., I achieved in a more successful measure than +had hitherto been accomplished the problem of swimming round Mont +St. Michael, Normandy, at high water. Previously acquainted with the +certainty that an adverse current would at one point or another be +met, I pre-arranged, and made three bold attempts, and by going in a +certain direction, met with the greatest success at the first essay. +The tides that rise and flow against the base of the mount are more +insidious and taxing to strike against than those which encircle the +Mount of St. Michael, in Cornwall; but then the quality of the sea +must be more pure and far more buoyant off the Cornish coast, and +freshens to a greater extent the elastic movements of the swimmer. The +sea, speaking from experience, does not harass one, swimming in the +bay of St. Michael, Normandy, until the "retirage" is met; when all +the force that can be exerted is necessarily called forth to prevent +being seaward swept. + +Yours faithfully, + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER + +Albi, Tarn, France, + +_September 7th_, 1903. + + + + +_ARCHITECTURE._ + +_From the_ PATRIOTE ALBIGEOIS, _Sept. 29th,_ 1903. + + +Albigeois, vous qui passez frequemment dans les rues adjacentes a +votre cathedrale, n'avez-vous pas remarque la figure d'un artiste +recemment installe, avec son chevalet, aupres du gigantesque monument +et mettant toute la science technique de son art a le reproduire +exactement. + +C'est M. John ATWOOD.SLATER qui avait visite notre cite, il y a +quelques annees, il avait alors dessine une belle perspective de +Sainte-Cecile qu'il a exposee a l'Academie Royale de Londres. Il a +admire la plupart des cathedrales gothiques de notre pays et, en fin +connaisseur, il nous informe que nous possedons un des plus recherches +specimens d'architecture qui existent en France. Quelques-unes de ces +cathedrales sont a peine plus merveilleuses, mais il n'en est guere +qui se pretent favorablement comme elle a l'esprit tranquille de +devotion. + +Maintenant pour le profit de ceux a qui cela pourrait faire plaisir +M. John ATWOOD.SLATER, cet artist nous communique benevolement ce +renseignegnement tres special: Il est encore fort nageur! C'est +lui qui aux dates de 22, 28 et 29 aout a ete signale par la Normandie +pour avoir fait a la nage le tour du Mont St. Michel: ce que personne +jusqu'ici n'avait ose pretendre faire a cause des marees qui sont +toujours tres contraires.--J.A.S. + + + + +UNPUBLISHED LETTERS. + +_MUSIC._ + +_To the Editor of The Times, London._ + + +Sir,--Whilst admitting the all-importance and the austere role of +circumstance weighted with interest, and fused to an all-volatile +point sufficient to write to you concerning, and always entering, +freed from _schism_, the moot point, I beg leave to advance the +suggestion that (with correct apposition of sentiment, already said) +the moment has arrived for an improvement to be effected in the +Hymnal, in the public offices of St. Paul's Cathedral employed. + +For the furtherance of this important item of diocesan and divine +service, "Hymns, Ancient and Modern," be it well known, has stood +the crucial test of a number of years; while its mechanical +characteristics have been demonstrated all the way along the metronome +number of decades it has served to mollify and assuage the griefs +and passions, and inspire the consciences of congregations using it +habitually as a _vade mecum_. + +While believing in the sedate grandeur of its stereotyped orthodoxy, +I powerfully plead, and in a tone of restraint, this prerogative: that +the edition of hymns known as "The Hymnary," should upon examination +be found to contain more agreeable, versatile value and fecundity +of literary nutrition: honourably and scholastically capable of +out-classing the rival for whose displacement I plead; and competent +at once to put yet better light with wholesomer sustenance and rarer +spiritual food into the minds of its privileged students. + +The ideas and principles conceived by the once editors and publishers +of the volume whose richly bestraught merits I champion, and whose +solemn rights I plead, (in the year 1871), was to place in society +at once, all electrified, au premier coup canonized (armed at +all points), a work which should at a moment be complete in law; +self-contained and academically referable to the stringent junctures +of an ecclesiastical, a national, and a polyphonetic tribunal: a +work which should loyally attract the acclaim of co-existing literary +hymnals, and ever would, it was reverently hoped--a sentiment which I, +for one, favourably concur in--remain, the key-symbol of the Reformed, +Anglican faith, with its near, true, and ever new ally--a note as +high, silvery and jurisprudential; purified domestic co-partnership! + +To further substantiate and enhance my devoutly expressed remarks, I +confidently state that the compilation of "Hymns Ancient and Modern" +was not originally in fact the outcome of an individual movement, or +yet of a moment. At periods diverse, and at stages various, it matured +its conditional purpose by repeated acts of regeneration and reform, +by keeping generally within the radius of a stereotyped policy of +pruning and paring; which consolidated by degrees and swept it on to +the confines and the platform of its national respectability. + +Be it even tacitly acknowledged, in surveying the genesis of Hymnology +that the function of revision has once been, a fact, applied to the +"Hymns Ancient and Modern" since the appearance of "The Hymnary," +in my estimation under a less searching eye than that which all +impartially discriminated and directed, at one and at one time only, +the laying together and the consolidating of the "particles predelix" +of this frankincense offering of the National Church; a work of +classic intent and aesthetic outcome. Personal labour designed it +_purposely_ for the hearts of men, but not for their _faces_; a +character which, Christian-like, it inseparably wears, like French +martial music. + +Herein exemplified to noble British hearts is a bulwark that at once +completely puts to rout no inconsiderable amount of the mildew mould +of "Hymns Ancient and Modern," while never so much as tarnishing or +jeopardizing the aroma of its native asceticism. + +Interested bibliophiles may peruse pleasantly the trenchant remarks +launched by the editors, (of the work upheld) literary and musical; +and examine for their predilection by turning its pages the analytical +merit of its composer's names; all serious-minded men; capable +lamp-bearers in the wide arcana of classic music. + +Stoical people do not know the wealth of chaste language stored up +within the covers of "The Hymnary." A rare musician-poet is needed +to resolve its pulpy flavour and discipline to the polemics of common +life; whilst one, a connoisseur, would readily congratulate the +sanguine, sensible, and all-seeing management, as regards to authors +of words, indices of composers, indices of metres, metronome marks, +which heralds and places it, in respect of completeness, ahead of all +contemporaneous editions. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER, + +_Medallist & Premium Holder of the Royal Academy of Arts, London._ + +4, Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol, + +_Epiphany, 1903._ + + + + +_LITERATURE._ + +_To the Editor of_ THE BIRMINGHAM GAZETTE. + +_March_, 1903. + + +Sir,--Touched by a virtuous sense that a noble writer has passed from +the central and celestial sphere of his vocation, and discharging the +offices of respect voluntarily admitted as a literary admirer, with +sympathy in a bruised state of liquefaction, I maintain that the +season for uttering a few words is clearly at hand, and should be +turned to the advantage of retrospect. + +Being bred of a generation which has read, with a spirit attuned +to the pleasant influences of an Academic and a Saracenic art, the +writings of John Henry Shorthouse, and ever discovering them to +contain philosophic importance and pyschologic expression decidedly +above the astuteness and ability of average writers; and having +usually in them remarked wisdom, council and knowledge reminiscent +of the inspired logicial writers and divines of the law-given +Testaments; in point of enquiry, I am summarily induced to champion +the belief that the psychologic, emphatic style adopted by the writer, +with the success in high quarters attendant the disposal of his +works, has not, convincingness being the indicator, been reached, nor +surpassed. The Warwickshire alchemist invariably throws across his +scenes and to the centre, a glare, a strong ray, which burns to the +water-line the barque of Agnosticism. This is tacitly recognised, +concurrently and alternately traced in the selection of the phrases, +and in the subtle or dramatic sense of the scene photographed; the +second inspiration springing into immediate co-operation, linking to +the first the thought by a magnetised hyphen, causes his symbolistic +pictures to thrive gloriously, rapturously; the first touch of +sensitized matter at times appearing grotesque, dimly lit, although +never flimsy. This pedantic, pictorial, even scholarly system by our +revered writer adopted, is bent, applied to meet extreme passes of +imaginative perfection and delicacy. The picture is naively introduced +and obscurely, somewhat trenchantly elaborated, allows itself to be +apologetically understood; whilst in succession the lower taste +for animal sentiment is sorcerized by vivid flashes of captivating +contrast, forked, as lightning, and left, as embers smouldering to +glow in the crucible of memory's recesses. Specious instances of irony +playing the manliest part: flashes of meteoric, mesmeric eloquence, +fitfully flecking the embossed page, as one tier or set of ideas, +in rhetoric orchestration, symphonizes with or eclipses another. +Connection, an element of robust mesmeric cohesion with this prized +author being the adamantine hyphen, the articulating link, which +compacts the roll. John Henry Shorthouse, the templar, the confessor +of music, was, and concurrently, the apologist of philosophic light. +Engaged to a powerful mechanism of romantic dogma, the nett article of +its creed; the neochromatic acoustic regalia of stage eloquence, +the key, or longest recurrent note; the van or middle the next, the +sinuous lever of stage discipline. After all, concurrently may it +not, be said that this colour instinct aspect of cosmically conceived +romanticism is never wilfully vulgarized. For its incomparable, +iconographical purpose it exists, and is as intrinsically useful and +serviceable to the scheme as the figures which admirably illustrate +the pictures of Hogarth and Holman Hunt. When introduced, music is +rarely intended to edge itself into the important place of "first +study." This in alchemy or personification being occupied by the +circumstantial cruxes of life, philosophic morality, vested usually +in courtly attire; I would not say abstract attire, for the clean-cut +character it bears is too strictly defined (for the sake of that +Artist's art) for such an impression to be born, or even to lurk by +sentiment, there beneath. + +The mould employed at all times is minutely fashioned, as a sculptor +would, by investing his model with a code of spirituality, inspired +with fire, which epicureanly endows fleeting emotion with a voice, and +vitality lends also to distant-reaching invisible ends: hinting that +the picturesque alchemy of music is potential too in reaching and +touching the lower chords of animal passion, where movement is rapid +and light redundant. The breast of the thoughtful writer heaved ever +to animal instincts without measure in extolling the complex phases +of court, ecclesiastic, and domestic oligarchy. Statesmanship and +subjunction rise and peacefully sink together, and in his magnetic +touch, are made to harmoniously coalesce in the political balance. +Shorthouse the author, a believer in, a champion was of two-fold or +dual cosmos: his colour sense being susceptible to and wrought upon in +singular consular consistence with the effulgent dogmas of its +creed, and in alliance with the spirit of the _cinque cento_ Italian +Renaissance Schools of Painting and Architecture. Practically +speaking, he conceived a train of adept ideas, at times fanciful, and +at times morbid, transforming them adroitly by adept excursions of +cross-lit introspection, accentuation, and by dint of manual caress, +as the first of players upon stringed instruments. + +Music, I would apologetically infer, being the middle, the rallying +feature, of Mr. J.H. Shorthouse's verbose apology. If fictionizing in +prose, he writes with brief orange-hued flashes of liquid ether; each +of short, all but, brief span. Characteristically, he belongs to the +same school and unapproachable law as the French organist-composer, +C.M. Widor: stringent, petulant observance of free uncurbed metronome +time, allied to picturesque handling; punctuality of tidal consort +rigidly regarding, when each, the one to the other, linked; less a +care, by virtuous intuition displaying for lyric measure. The writings +of Nathaniel Hawthorne more forcibly and piquantly evince cylindrical +flow, and strike at the object lesson with less artificial, _cadavre_, +fastidious touch; but Mr. Shorthouse, speaking strictly, as to temper +and _tempo_ is a trifle more rugged; and never a shadow of suspense +suffered he to stir a hand's breadth, that is, rest 'twixt poetic +certainty and doubt, lest the ultimate end should all-attainable be +or not. For freedom from this, and other literary ambiguity, yet never +manifesting anxiety of freeing himself in prose from its insidious and +arbitrary restraint, I attribute his tragical, subtle, gentle power of +"connection," _liaison_; feeling for time; planetary time, be it lunar +time, sometimes unmistakably, solar time; disallowing, by potency of +sentimental touch, a sense of rupture, to linger. A noble stream by +mute comparison, pursuing its course unwavering; interrupted but now +and again, to the vast expansive ocean of shapeliness, of unity. + +J. ATWOOD.SLATER, + +_Premium Holder & Medallist +of the Royal Academy of Arts, +London._ + +Hill Side, Cotham Hill, Bristol. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Original Letters and Biographic +Epitomes, by J. Atwood.Slater + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ORIGINAL LETTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 13203.txt or 13203.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/0/13203/ + +Produced by Clare Boothby, Melissa Er-Raqabi and PG Distributed +Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/13203.zip b/old/13203.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a476ae8 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13203.zip |
